Aizawl: State-owned exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has begun looking for gas reserves in Mizoram, close to the site of known reserves, officials said on Thursday.
“After two decades, the ONGC has recently started exploration of gas at Meidum village in Kolasib district in north-western Mizoram,” an ONGC spokesman told IANS.
“The exploratory well, around 130 km north of Aizawl, is in close proximity to known hydrocarbon provinces. The prospective locations comprise of over 4,000 square km in north-western part of the state,” he added.
The ONGC is extremely optimistic of finding hydrocarbon deposits in the locations as the drilling was undertaken after seven years of proper investigation with state of the art technology and equipment.
“The exploratory block was recently awarded in the third round of bidding to a consortium of ONGC (80 percent)- Indian Oil Corporation (20 percent),” the official said. According to an official document of the Mizoram geology and mining resources department, the northeastern state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, falls under the category No.1 or “proven commercial productivity zone”. According to rough estimates, there could be around 170 million metric tonnes of untapped crude reserves.
The ONGC, a Maharatna company, after an intensive exploration and drilling has found huge oil and gas in Assam and Tripura. (IANS)