Oil India Ltd has found natural gas reserves near the Andaman Islands, the state-owned company said, but it did not give an estimate of how much was found. OIL said in a statement that “occurrence of natural gas” was reported in the second exploratory well, Vijayapuram-2, drilled in the Offshore Andaman Block AN-OSHP-2018/1, which the company secured under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).
“The preliminary analysis of gas samples, collected during intermittent inflow of gas as part of initial production testing, has confirmed the presence of natural gas. Further gas isotope studies are being undertaken so as to understand the genesis of the gas,” the statement said.
Oil India Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have been exploring the Andaman Sea for oil and gas, hoping to reduce India’s heavy dependence on imports – 88% for oil and 50% for gas.
In March, ONGC started drilling an ultra-deepwater well, ANE-E, in the Andaman offshore, but the company has not shared the results yet.
“As per preliminary assessment, this could be a leading indicator of the presence of source or migration pathway or accumulation of hydrocarbon, which will help in future exploration and drilling strategy,” OIL said.
“OIL is also undertaking additional testing of higher-up prospects to further evaluate the reported occurrence of gas.”
According to OIL, this is the first reported occurrence of hydrocarbons during the ongoing exploration campaign in the Andaman Shallow Offshore Block.
“Initial production testing of the well in the range of 2,212-2,250 metres has established the presence of natural gas with intermittent flaring. The gas samples, brought by ship to Kakinada, were tested and found to be 87% methane,” Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a post on X.
“The size of the gas pool and commercial viability of the discovery will get verified in the coming months, but establishing the presence of hydrocarbons in the Andaman basin is a major step in confirming our long held belief that Andaman basin is rich in natural gas, in line with discoveries in the entire area from Myanmar in North to Indonesia in the south in this belt.”
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