New Delhi: The government encourages the behavior of the public sector Ongc to involve private sector companies and service providers wherever possible to help increase oil and gas production, Tarun Kapoor oil secretary said Thursday.
Kapoor comment came a few days after the second ranking official in his ministry asked the oil and gas Natural Corporation (ONGC) to provide 60 percent of the shares plus the operation control in the largest oil and gas producer in India, Mumbai High and Bassein to foreign companies.
“ONC must explore more so that it can find more oil and gas reserves and bring them quickly to increase domestic production.
The government is very clear that ONCs must do more,” he told reporters here.
India 85 percent depend on import to meet its oil needs, and the way to cut high import bills is to increase domestic production.
“Naturally, when they do more work, there are areas where they can get experts in the fields …
like in deepsea,” Kapoor said.
The discovery that the company has not been able to develop or the area that cannot be explored is some examples where ONGC can involve the private sector and foreign companies.
Ongc, he said, must identify areas where he can get the skills and efficiency of the private sector.
This can range from technical collaboration to provide partial discoveries and have not been developed to private companies.
The private sector can also be involved in increasing production from existing fields.
“We only make suggestions for Ongc …
The government cannot provide direction to the Maharatna company.
The final decision must be taken by the Company’s board,” he said.
Amar Nath, an additional secretary (exploration) at the Ministry of Petroleum and Gas, on October 28, wrote a 3-page letter to the Chairman of the ONC and the Managing Director of Subhash Kumar, said the productivity of offshore assets of Mumbai High and Bassein & Satellite (B & S) under the company Country owned low, and international partners must be invited and given 60 percent participating interest (PI) and operators.
This is the second time since April that Nath, which is part of the management of Ongc as director of prospective governments that serve longest in their councils and is often considered a potential candidate to replace Kumar next year, has written an official letter, painting poor images, company performance.
According to the letter, a copy reviewed by PTI, he said the rebuilding project would increase mature recovery and continued to decline from Mumbai High Field from 28 percent to 32 percent, “which is quite low”.
Mumbai High, which was found in 1974, and the B & S entered into production in 1988 is the mainstay asset of oil and gas (ONGC) (ONGC), contributing two-thirds of the current oil and gas production.
Without this asset, the company will be left with only a smaller field.
Nath on April 1 was written to Kumar to sell shares in producing oil fields such as Ratna R-Series to private companies, get foreign partners in the gas kg basin, monetizing existing infrastructure, and other services into separate companies to increase production.
Two letters by Nath are the third attempt by the Ministry of Oil to get ONC to privatize the oil and gas fields under the mode government.
In October 2017, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon, the Ministry’s technical arm, identified 15 producing fields with collective reserves of 791.2 million tons of crude oil and 333.46 billion gas cubic meters, because they submitted to private companies in the hope that they would improve on the estimated base line and the extraction.
A year later, 149 small fields and Marginal ONGC were identified for private and foreign companies on the grounds that state-owned companies would only focus on the big ones.
The first plan cannot go through because of the strong opposition from ONC, the source is aware of the problem.
The second plan went to the cabinet, which on February 19, 2019, decided to bid 64 fields of Marginal Ongc.
However, the tender received a warm response, they said, added that ONC was allowed to maintain 49 fields in the conditions that their performance would be closely monitored for three years.
Nath on April 1 and October 28 The letter stated that two years had passed since the cabinet decision but Ongc had not started the partnership process.
ONC produces 20.2 million tons of crude oil in the fiscal year ended March 31 (2020-21), down from 20.6 million tons in the previous year and 21.1 million tons in 2018-19.
This produced 21.87 BCM gas at 2020-21, down from 23.74 BCM in the previous year and 24.67 BCM in 2018-19.