(PTI)
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the speed of execution of its projects and the company is identifying opportunities for optimisation of capital and operating expenditure. While about 9 per cent of the company’s natural gas output was impacted by inability of customers to take supplies due to the coronavirus lockdown, lower oil and gas prices had impacted its revenues, the company said.
In a note on the material impact of COVID-19 pandemic submitted to stock exchanges, ONGC said operations and production have gone on uninterrupted during the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Crude oil production was almost at the same level as before the COVID-19 outbreak but natural gas “output was down by 9 per cent on account of less demand and offtake by customers due to the lockdown,” it said.
However, with the easing of lockdown restrictions and gradual opening of industries, gas demand has been now restored to normal levels. “With the imposition of lockdown, onshore operations were hampered in quite a few places which resulted in idling of drilling rigs and equipment. However, since April 20, 2020, onshore operations have also been restarted in places where these were stalled and are near normal at present.
