(PTI)
State-owned ONGC thought the discovery is too small to make economic sense. But Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) in two years of taking over the B-18 block has not just discovered more resources but has invested enough to start oil and gas output from April next year. In an interview, HOEC Managing Director P Elango said the company will start producing 8,500 barrels per day of oil and oil equivalent gas from the B-80 block in April next year.
HOEC in September 2017 won the block in India’s first auction round of small discovered fields that the state-owned firms had not developed for a variety of reasons. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had made an oil discovery in one of the five well it had drilled on the B-80 block that sits in Arabian Sea, off the Mumbai coast, but did not find economics to develop it. ONGC had established a 3,500 barrels per day production from one well.
