ONGC ends shale exploration in India

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has ended its shale exploration programme ahead of schedule, concluding that India may not have enough commercially extractable shale reserves. With this, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) is considering launching a new resource assessment programme for all unconventional hydrocarbons, including shale, coal bed methane and gas hydrate. In 2013, the MoPNG had permitted the exploration of shale by ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL) in three phases of three years each. ONGC had to carry out exploration activities in 175 blocks, including 50 blocks in the first phase. Its exploration programme ended in the first phase itself with ONGC drilling about 26 wells in three hydrocarbon basins of Cambay, Krishna-Godavari and Assam-Arakan in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Assam, respectively, at a cost of Rs 6 billion-Rs 7 billion. The corporation had to give up its plans of drilling in the fourth basin of the Cauvery in face of strong resistance to shale activities by the Tamil Nadu government.