Sweeter gas deal for giants

摘要

THE Indian government is planning to offer its state-owned oil companies special incentives to exploit discovered gas reserves that today are not commercial at the prevailing gas price, writes Amanda Battersby. The aim is to unlock production at around a dozen fields belonging to Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) that are unviable at the mandated gas price of $3.36 per million British thermal units. ONGC is reportedly sitting on some 35 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas reserves at shallow-water fields off Andhra Pradesh and off Mumbai and Gujarat. The company also has onshore discoveries at blocks such as Bhuvanagiri in Tamil Nadu and Ba ntumilli that are ripe for development, provided it can secure a realistic gas price that will make it economic to develop them.