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Our Bureau

Hyderabad , June 28

OIL and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has drawn up plans to intensify its exploration work in Andhra Pradesh by planning to move a third major rig here and is set to locate the first intelligent drilling facility and another integrated exploration set up (bids for which have been invited) in the country off Krishna-Godavari basin coast.

The Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, Mr Subir Raha, said, "We believe that the Andhra Pradesh coast has a lot of potential and plan to significantly expand our operations in the State both for drilling as also prospecting operations. In the course of our business plan, we are in the process of establishing the country's first intelligent drilling facility here."

"This would then be followed by a new integrated drilling centre, tenders for both have been floated and a decision is expected to be finalised shortly. The bidders include both Indian and overseas companies, Mr Raha said .

"In Andhra Pradesh, ONGC is engaged in the process of exploration for the last 40 years and most of the success thus far has been onshore. We are gradually expanding this work to offshore in the K-G basin, which has huge reserves, our studies indicate. We are also actively engaged in the Ravva oil fields with a joint venture partner for the production-related initiatives," Mr Raha said.

"In February last, we have moved one drill ship Sagar Vijay to G4 and another ship has been added in the form of Discover Seven Seas. We expect more discoveries in the region. This means we will move another drill ship Sagar Bhushan in the next two years," he said.

"As per our company corporate plan, we plan to double the total production from about six billion tonnes to 12 billion tonnes by 2020. Out of this, the next four billion would be from deep water and 2 billion would be from onshore work. This would mean significant investments and complimented by efforts to ramp up operations across various fields in the country," Mr Raha said.

"With regard to commercial exploration, we have embarked on two major projects in the State. While one related to G1GS15 off Kakinada coast, we have invited for bids for this project. This is being billed as the first digital production field off ONGC and termed as Intelligent field.

"It is proposed to begin production by 2006. The other project relates to G4, which is being developed as an integrated development platform. Bids for this project too have been invited and include both domestic and international players," he explained.

Mr Raha was here to receive Dr V. Krishnamurthy award for excellence-2004 instituted by Centre for Organisation Development (CoD). This award was given coinciding with the 24th anniversary celebrations of CoD.

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ONGC to intensify drilling in AP

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