The Hindu Business Line : ONGC looks at fresh investment in South

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is looking at fresh investment opportunities down South. The company is mulling setting up a condensate plant to extract the condensate or value-added products from the gas found in Kuthalam fields, a company executive said.

The condensate plant is in the tendering stage, at present. Currently, the gas from Kuthalam fields is collected at the Kuthlam Gas Collecting Station. Total capacity of the station is 25-lakh cubic metre per day. The gas is sold to GAIL (India) Ltd. The capacity of the proposed condensate plant is expected to be 150 tonnes per day. It is proposed to extract value-added products such as naphtha and kerosene from the condensate.

The executive added that as per the original plan the project is estimated to cost Rs 22.9 crore in the first phase.

Gas potential

The revised estimates show the project cost as Rs 31 crore. The feasibility study for the project was undertaken in September 2005.

The project is expected to be complete by June 2007.

Asked what has prompted this move by the company, he said this was part of the efforts by ONGC to bring sufficient efficiency in petroleum products. This plant would primarily cater to the finds of Cauvery assets.

Besides, the Krishna-Godavari Basin has huge gas potential. Production of Cauvery asset was oil - 0.3485 million tonnes and gas - 799.039 million standard cubic metres.

The gas from Kuthalam fields was found to contain traces of helium as well, which is useful in nuclear technology, the executive said.

Samples of gas were sent to various laboratories, including BARC, which confirmed the presence of helium, he added.

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