OREANDA-NEWS. In a significant move that may open up new opportunities in India’s quest of energy security, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to explore the possibility of sharing the latter’s infrastructural facility in the East Coast.

The MoU aims at working out the modalities for sharing of infrastructure, identifying additional requirements as well as firming up the commercial terms.

This shall not only minimize ONGC’s initial Capex but also expedite its field development resulting in early monetization of its deep water fields adjacent to the fields of RIL.

ONGC, the country’s largest oil & gas producer, has drawn a roadmap to make substantial investment over a period of next five years both in exploration & developmental activities, and deepwater exploration and development constitutes a major component of the same. Under this plan, ONGC has a conservative estimate to produce about 6 to 9 MMSCMD of gas by mid-2017 from G-4, KG-DWN - D & E fields in the first phase.

The companies intend to enter into a formal agreement after conducting a joint study which will be spread over the next nine months.

The MoU was signed by Mr. Ashok Varma , Executive Director, Asset Manager Eastern Offshore Asset, ONGC and Mr. Naresh K Narang, Sr. Vice President, Development Projects, Petroleum E&P , RIL in the presence of Chairman Mr. Sudhir Vasudeva, Director (Offshore) Mr. P.K. Borthakur and Director(Exploration) Mr. N K Verma from ONGC and Mr. P.M. S Prasad, Executive Director from RIL.

ONGC CMD Mr. Sudhir Vasudeva said that it is a win- win situation not only for both the companies which are striving hard to accrete new reserves and put them on production at the quickest time but also for energy starved nation. Vasudeva and PMS Prasad agreed that it is an uphill task ahead and today’s MoU is just the beginning.