ONGC discovers new oil wells in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: The state-run oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has discovered two new oil wells in Patan district in Gujarat, which have estimated oil reserves of over one million tonnes, an official said here Saturday.
The oil find was made at a crucial time as the upstream major's Mehsana production unit in the state was witnessing fall in output, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
ONGC started its first exploratory work in Patan, nearly 80 km from Ahmedabad, after receiving positive indication from pre-drilling studies, he added.
The output at ONGC Mehsana, which was around 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes a day when the unit was set up in 1968, came down to 6,000 tonnes a day over the years. Similarly, the annual production has come down to 2.25 million tonnes from 3 million tonnes.
"The oil found in north Gujarat is typically waxy in nature and therefore the recoverability is very low," said the official. He added that ONGC had already produced over 50 percent of the recoverable oil reserves.
ONGC Mehsana is using various state-of-the-art technologies including in situ combustion technology to improve recovery rate of oil found in Mehsana, he said.