OREANDA-NEWS. September 8, 2011.  ONGC has also drawn up plans to begin production from its G-1 marginal field in the KG Basin from July 2012. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has started oil and gas production from its Krishna Godavari basin GS-15 field off the Andhra coast.

"We started production last week," ONGC director (offshore) Sudhir Vasudeva said on the sidelines of the World Energy Policy Summit. He said ONGC has also drawn up plans to begin production from its G-1 marginal field in the KG Basin from July 2012.

The company has asked the petroleum ministry to identify gas users and approve a price of USD 4.75 per million British thermal units. About 0.19 million standard cubic metres per day of gas is being produced, he said, adding that output would go up to 1.52 mmscmd from July next year (subsequent to the G-1 field coming onstream) and to 1.72 mmscmd in 2013-14.

ONGC cited the Oil Ministry's gas pricing order, which had fixed a base price of USD 4.50 per mmBtu for gas from the KG Basin and given an additional USD 0.25 per mmBtu if the gas was coming from offshore fields, to demand a gas price of USD 4.75 per mmBtu.

The official said the output will begin to dip from 2013-14 to 1.59 mmscmd and taper to 0.029 mmscmd by 2022-23. The field will also produce 9,400 barrels of crude oil per day.

ONGC envisages the production of 0.982 million tonnes of sweet or low-sulfur crude and 5.92 billion cubic metres of gas over a period of 15 years from G-1 and GS-15. G-1 is located 28 kilometres off the Amalapuram coast, in water depths ranging from 135-500 metres, while GS-15 is located 5 km from the coast in the KG Basin. G-1 and GS-15 are two marginal fields that were awarded to ONGC on a nomination basis.

The two acreages are being developed together at an estimated cost of Rs1,200 crore. In the late afternoon, ONGC was trading at around Rs263.20 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 0.86% up from the previous close.