(ET)
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has wound up its shale exploration programme mid-way after spending five years and hundreds of crores of rupees, concluding that India may not have enough commercially-extractable shale reserve.
This comes as a setback to the country that had hoped to exploit its own shale rocks to augment its flagging oil and gas production, inspired by the American shale revolution that turned the United States into the largest producer of oil and gas and dramatically reshaped the global energy market this decade.
ONGC recently told the government that it was ending its shale exploration programme ahead of schedule as the results hadn’t been encouraging, according to ONGC executives and government officials. It also told the government to get the country’s shale potential reassessed by a competent international agency, they said. Following this, the Oil Ministry is considering launching a new resource assessment programme for all unconventional hydrocarbons, including shale, coal bed methane and gas hydrate, they said.
