State-owned oil an gas behemoth ONGC plans to spend around US $5 billion to develop gas fields to boost output by almost 60 per cent over six years. The explorer sought permission from the oil and gas regulator on 16 July to invest funds in nine natural gas discoveries off the east coast to produce 35 metric million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) by 2016, sources said.
The amount is thrre times ONGC’s planned spending on its largest oil field and follows the government’s decision in May to double the price at which the explorer sells gas. India is ramping up gas output at the fastest pace in the world, according to BP’s 2010 Statistical Review of World Energy, after companies including Reliance Industries discovered new fields.
“ONGC has been discovering new reserves for a while but the concern is being able to convert them to production,” said Rohit Ahuja, a Mumbai-based analyst with Centrum Broking in Mumbai. The producer of almost 25 per cent of the crude oil used by India is starting new fields at home as output declined at aging areas off the west coast. Reserves added in fields operated by ONGC in the year ended March was the equivalent of 82.98 million metric tonne, the highest in the past 20 years, the explorer said 26 April . – Agencies

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