ONGC to spend Rs26,000 crore on capital expenditure in next financial year

The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) Limited will spend Rs26,000 crore on capital expenditure in the next financial year, ONGC chairman and managing director RS Sharma said here today. The capital expenditure in this financial year is Rs24,000 crore, he added.

Most of the budget will be spent on Exploration and Modernisation plans, Sharma told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Eighth Biennial International Conference & Exposition on Petroleum Geophysics, a three-day event began today at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC).

Sharma said the modernisation works at Bombay are underway and it is a continuous process. According to him, presently third phase of the modernisation works are going on in which old pipes and structures will be replaced.

Replying to a question on the upcoming Union budget proposals on oil and gas exploration activities, he said the cost of exploration has been going high no major investments are coming up.

There is a need to incentivise the exploration activity as the budgets on exploration is going up, Sharma said.

Earlier speaking at a press meet Sharma said the ONGC is set to invest Rs 25,000-crore in Krishna-Godavari basin in the next five years. Gas production from GS-1 and GS-15 deep water fields will start from next year.

Andhra Pradesh government has 10 per cent share in these two blocks. Gas production from another two blocks will begin from 2012, Sharma said. He said the problem of shortage of rigs will be over this year and activities at various blocks and fields will be intensified.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murali Deora and his lieutenant Jitin Prasad, who were scheduled to be present for the inauguration of the three-day event, were absent.