AIZAWL: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has established a significant gas discovery in the northwestern part of Mizoram, even though officials of the state-owned oil exploration giant said this was yet to be officially declared.
Confirming that a ‘commercially viable’ hydrocarbon deposit was discovered at Hortoki-I well in Meidum exploration site, ONGC chief geologist Chandan Chakraborty said the amount of hydrocarbon and at what depth it was found could not be disclosed as of now.
”The discovery has been made after conducting proper production testing,” the official was quoted as saying. He hoped to announced details of the discover within the next 15 days. The ONGC begun looking for gas reserves at Meidum area in Kolsib district, close to the site of known reserves, from February this year.
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.
The ONGC was 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. According to an geologists, 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, said the state geology and mining department sources. (UNI)