Comments
Cauvery Basin may give India its first composite energy block and public sector giant ONGC seems to be the chosen one.
Theoretically speaking a composite energy block is a block in which exploration for both hydrocarbon and harnessing renewable energy can be carried out simultaneously.
The Cauvery Basin extends over three States – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Union Territory of Puducherry. According to sources in Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the concept of composite energy block exploration will be unique as it needs coordination from other Ministries too.
Though the concept is yet to be recognisedby the government, the DGH has requested cooperation with Ministry for New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) team on new energies. DGH itself has created Hydrocarbon Efficiency and New Energy Department within the organisation.
An official said, “as different ministries are involved in composite blocks like geothermal and offshore winds etc. coordination and dialogues are needed between them to work out the strategy to develop these blocks.”
“On composite block, initial thought is combining oil and gas block with geothermal exploration in the awarded acreages. But geothermal is under MNRE and hence DGH is having preliminary discussions with MNRE on this issue,” the official told businessline.
In fact, sources said that there are some exploration areas in offshore which has been also identified by the MNRE for having wind energy potential. Besides, on composite block for oil, gas and geothermal, primary targets are onshore areas which are easier to develop, according to the official.
Besides, for offshore geothermal, experts want to do an in-depth study of the potential. “Offshore oil and gas blocks can be developed with offshore winds if those offshore area have proven wind speed for running wind turbines,” the official added.
ONGC
Meanwhile, ONGC is one of the dominant players in the Cauvery Basin. Its block CY-UDWHP-2019/1, in Cauvery offshore Bay of Bengal which it had won under Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) – V bid round, may also have some other sources potential.
At present, the licence is only for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. ONGC is still testing the well in Cauvery offshore and initial results are encouraging, sources said, adding “ONGC might announce discovery once testings are over.”
The well Chola-1 was successfully drilled up to target depth of 5225m (MD). Four promising reservoirs zones were identified. Testing of two zones showed encouraging results – gas at the rate of 2,95,490 cubic metres per day and condensate at 17.8 cubic metres per day and in the second zone gas at the rate of 5,17,425 cubic metres/day and condensate at the rate of 58.5 cubic metres/day.
Remaining zones are in the process of testing, the source said, adding that the “this discovery has been notified to DGH as “CHOLA”.”
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.