ONGC board clears Mumbai offshore, Dahej petrochemicals projects

09 August 2006

Mumbai: The board of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), at its meeting held on August 8, approved the development of C-series in Mumbai offshore and the Dahej petrochemicals complex.

ONGC proposes to invest Rs3,195 crore (Rs31,950 million) to develop the C-series marginal field, located 60km west of Daman in the Tapti-Daman block of Mumbai offshore.

The field, situated at depths ranging from 19 to 35 meters, is estimated to hold in-place reserves of 15.54 billion cubic meters of gas and 4.46 million cubic meters of condensate. ONGC proposes to set up eight platforms and 17 wells to develop the marginal field. The estimated gas production would be more than three million standard cubic meters per day

The development of the first phase will be completed in 27 months from the award of contract, ie, by December 2008.

ONGC''s Dahej petrochemicals complex in Gujarat will be a global scale petrochemicals complex with 1.1 million tonnes per annum ethylene capacity dual feed cracker, along with associated units and polymer plants, to manufacture HDPE, LLDPE, PP and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) at Dahej.:

The petrochemicals complex will be integrated with ONGC''s own C2 - C3 plant which is currently under execution (at Dahej), using naphtha from the company''s own units at Hazira and Uran as feed stock. The project is proposed to be implemented through the SPV route, with the company having management control and holding 26 per cent equity. Gujarat State Petrochemicals Corporation (GSPC) is likely to participate in the project as a joint venture partner. With a projected debt-equity ratio of 2.55:1, ONGC''s anticipated equity investment (26 per cent) would be around Rs992 crore (Rs9,920 million).