ONGC declares interim dividend, notifies three new discoveries

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) announced three new oil and gas discoveries in Krishan Godavari Basin and Mumbai offshore and said it will pay its shareholders an interim dividend of 100 per cent. ONGC board in its meeting yesterday approved an interim dividend of 100 per cent, paying Rs 5 per equity share of Rs 5 each, the company said in a statement here today.

"The total payout on this account will be Rs 4,277.75 crore out of which the Government of India will receive Rs 2948.08 crore on its shareholding. In addition, dividend distribution tax of Rs 855.55 crore would also be paid," it said.

ONGC said it has made three discoveries - one in deepwater KG Basin off the east coast, second in Mumbai offshore basin off the west coast and the third in Cauvery basin in the southern onland part of the country. In KG Basin offshore, ONGC has made a significant gas discovery in its nomination deep water block, KG-OS-DW-III. The discovery well GD-11-1, located about 43 km to the South of the nearest coastal town of Odalarevu in Andhra Pradesh, was drilled down to a depth of 2,810 metres in water depth of 812 metre to explore the hydrocarbon potential of Pliocene sands. The Pliocene sequence has indicated the presence of about 36 metres of gas pay which, on conventional testing, has flowed gas at the rate of around 6.5 lakh cubic metres a day.

ONGC has already made five hydrocarbon bearing discoveries from the northward contiguous NELP-VI shallow water block of KG-OSN-2004/1 from a similar play and this discovery has opened up a large opportunity for further assessment of the prospectivity, it said. In Mumbai offshore ONGC made a new pool discovery in the well WO-5-11 (WO-5-G), situated around 160 kms west from the nearest coastline in Maharashtra.

On testing, the well flowed oil at the rate of around 1,500 barrels per day and gas at the rate of around 10,000 cubic metres per day through half inch bean. In Cauvery Basin, ONGC has made a significant gas discovery in the well MD-5 in the NELP-IV block CY-ONN-2002/2. This is the second hydrocarbon discovery in the block.

The first discovery in this block was in October 2012, when oil was discovered in the the well Madanam-3. The well MD-5 is located about 9 km towards east of Sirkhazi town in Nagapatinam district. "The discovery is named as 'Thirunagari Gas Discovery' after the name of the nearby village," the statement said, adding the well flowed gas at the rate of 61,800 cubic metres per day along with condensate at the rate of 9.6 cubic metres per day during testing. "This discovery is envisaged to enhance the commercial viability of this block," it added.