ONGC discovers oil, gas in West Bengal

An oil and gas discovery has been made in a well in Ashok Nagar of 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.ONGC had made a significant natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Kutch off the west coast a few months back, which it plans to bring to production in 2-3 years.

Background:-

• India has 26 sedimentary basins, of which only seven have commercial production of oil and gas. Except for the Assam shelf, ONGC opened up for commercial production all the other six basins, including Cambay, Mumbai Offshore, Rajasthan, Krishna Godavari, Cauvery, and Assam-Arakan Fold Belt."The seventh basin was opened way back in 1985. 
• The company is on the way to putting the Kutch offshore discovery to production. This would make Kutch, India's eighth sedimentary basin. Cauvery was the last Category-I producing basin which was discovered in 1985.

26Basins(category wise):-

• category 1:-Cambay, Mumbai Offshore, Rajasthan, Krishna Godavari, Cauvery, Assam Shelf and Assam-Arakan Fold Belt are Category-I basins with established commercial production.
• category 2:-Kutch, Mahanadi-NEC (North East Coast), Andaman-Nicobar, Kerala-Konkan-Lakshadweep where known accumulation of hydrocarbons are there but no commercial production has been achieved so far.
• category 3:-Himalayan Foreland Basin, Ganga Basin, Vindhyan basin, Saurashtra Basin, Kerela Konkan Basin, Bengal Basin are Category-III basins having hydrocarbon shows that are considered geologically prospective.
• category4:-basins of Karewa, Spiti-Zanskar, Satpura–South Rewa–Damodar, Chhattisgarh, Narmada, Deccan Syneclise, Bhima-Kaladgi, Bastar, PranhitaGodavari and Cuddapah are classified as Category-IV basins having uncertain potential which may be prospective by analogy with similar basins in the world.

By: Jagjot