"Exploratory efforts by ONGC have led to the discovery of gas in the ultra-deep waters of KG-DWN-98/2 block in KG offshore," he said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
He, however, said the quantum of gas has not been ascertained so far.
"Commercial production (will) depend on commerciality of discovery," he said.
ONGC has, however, stated that it has found 2.09 to 6.73 trillion cubic feet of initial in-place volumes in northern structure and 2.61 to 8.03 Tcf in the southern structure identified through the UD-1 well in Block KG-DWN-98/2. The total inplace volumes for both the culminations have been estimated between 2.09-14.76
The state-run firm holds 90 per cent interest in the block while the remaining 10 per cent is with Cairn India.
To another question, Patel said ONGC accounted for 75.8 per cent of country's crude oil production in 2005-06. "Crude oil production of ONGC during 2005-06 was 24.404 million tons against a target of 26.61 million tonnes, while country's total production was 32.191 million tonnes."
In 2006-07, ONGC's share of crude oil production is likely to be 77.7 per cent of total production in the country.
"Crude oil production of ONGC in 2006-07 till December 2006 was 19.495 million tonnes (76.5 pr cent of total production of 25.48 million tonnes) as against target of 20.239 million tonnes," he said.
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