The Hindu : Business : ONGC likely to come out with huge oil and gas find

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Thursday, Jan 04, 2007
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ONGC likely to come out with huge oil and gas find

Special Correspondent

Russia to enlarge cooperation in exploration and refining

— PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

HERALDING A BONANZA: M. S. Srinivasan (centre), Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, with R. S. Sharma (left), Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC, and A. K. Balyan, Director (Human Resource), ONGC, at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: A `huge delegation' led by top brass from the hydrocarbons sector is accompanying Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to India later this month to further consolidate and enlarge the areas of cooperation in exploration and refining of hydrocarbons.

This was revealed here on Wednesday by Petroleum Secretary M. S. Srinivasan even as he hinted at the possibility of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) coming out soon with the announcement of a major gas find in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Responding to a question during a press conference on the 7th international oil and gas conference and exhibition, PETROTECH 2007, to be held here from January 15 to 19, Mr. Srinivasan denied that there was any cooling down so far as the engagement of India and Russia in the field of hydrocarbons was concerned.

Not only was Russia participating in the mega event and contributing technical papers, `a huge delegation was accompanying the Russian President later this month, he said, suggesting possibilities of further cooperation between the two countries, particularly when Russia was emerging as a super power in the field of energy. Asserting that it was not possible to establish a benchmark for exploration of oil reserves, Mr. Srinivasan said ONGC might come out with new finds soon.

"Our drilling and exploratory efforts in the east coast have been highly prospective and we hope to make an exciting announcement on oil and gas find in the next 15 days,'' ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R. S. Sharma said.

Mr. Sharma said the initial results had been encouraging. The announcement would be made after upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) makes an assessment.

The Petroleum Secretary said successful exploration activities in the country during the past four to five years had given a lot of hope. India will more than double its gas availability in the next five years.

Asked about the downstream regulator, the secretary said that the regulator would be operationional within 30 days.

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