Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to explore the possibility of sharing the latter’s infrastructural facility on the East Coast of the country.

The MoU aims at working out the modalities for sharing infrastructure, identifying additional requirements as well as firming up commercial terms. The companies intend to enter into a formal agreement after conducting a joint study that will be spread over the next nine months.

ONGC, in a press statement, said the MoU would not only minimise its initial capital expenditure but also expedite its field development.

This would result in early monetisation of its deep water fields, which are adjacent to the fields controlled by RIL.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva said it was a win-win situation not only for both the companies — which are striving hard to add new reserves and put them on production in the least amount of time — but also for the energy-starved nation.

ONGC has drawn a roadmap to make substantial investments over the next five years for exploration and developmental activities.

Deepwater exploration constitutes a major component of the same.

Under this plan, ONGC has estimated that it will produce about six to nine million metric standard cubic meter per day of gas by mid-2017 from G-4, Krishna Godavari-DWN and D&E fields, the release said.

The MoU was signed by Ashok Varma , Executive Director, Asset Manager Eastern Offshore Asset, ONGC and Naresh K. Narang, Senior Vice President, Development Projects, Petroleum E and P , RIL.

> rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in

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