ONGC and an Australian University have set their eyes on tapping oil resources in some tough and challenging locales in India.

These are called basement reservoirs. The research initiative will evaluate the potential of these unconventional oil resources.

The School of Petroleum Engineering at the UNSW (University of New South Wales) and the ONGC have forged a research agreement.

The project will assess the feasibility of recovering hydrocarbon fuel from these hard to access, offshore geological structures called basement reservoirs. ONGC is keen on its Mumbai offshore basin, a report from the University said.

The $2.05-million project would be executed over the next two-and-a-half years. This is the fourth major project between UNSW and ONGC since first signing a memorandum of understanding in 2002.

“These are very hard rocks that contain fractures, which in turn, contain oil that is very difficult to extract,” explains Professor Val Pinczewski, Head of the School of Petroleum Engineering. “This is an important partnership for UNSW that has grown with time,” says Mr Pinczewski.

After developing suitable mathematical models, experiments with rock samples provided by ONGC will be conducted on field to test how much oil is recoverable.

>Somasekhar.m@thehindu.co.in