ONGC
ONGCReuters

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) approved Saturday an investment of Rs 5,050 crore for Tripura. The investment is for drilling of surface facilities and digging of wells to produce gas of 5.1 mmscmd from the state's fields, a move seen as an effort to develop the North-East .

The company's board met Feb. 11 in New Delhi to take this decision. The Ministry of Oil and Petroleum announced the main aim of the investment is to develop the region as a hydrocarbon hub as part of its Hydrocarbon Vision 2030, Press Trust of India quoted a statement issued by the Tripura asset of the ONGC as saying.

"In line with this vision, the ONGC management put their first foot forward and approved additional investment of Rs 1,304 crore for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities to produce 5.1 mmscmd gas from Tripura fields," the statement said.

In 2008, the ONGC had approved an investment of Rs 1,946 crore for the project, it added. Due to geological mapping, so far 11 gas fields have been discovered in Tripura by the ONGC, of which seven are currently in production.

The ONGC is currently carrying out drilling in the state with three "owned rigs" and additional four or five rigs are expected to be operational by 2016 end, PTI added.

[mmscmd= Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day]

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]