State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), on Saturday, announced three new oil and gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari Basin and Mumbai offshore, and said it would pay its shareholders an interim dividend of Rs.5 per share.
The ONGC board at is meeting on Friday, 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 on Saturday.
“The total payout on this account will be Rs.4,277.75 crore, out of which the government will receive Rs.2,948.08 crore on its shareholding. In addition, the dividend distribution tax of Rs.855.55 crore would also be paid,” it said.
ONGC said it has made three discoveries — one in the deepwater KG Basin off the east coast, second in the Mumbai offshore basin off the west coast and the third in the Cauvery basin in the southern onland part of the country.
In the KG Basin offshore, the company has made a significant gas discovery in its nomination deep water block, KG-OS-DW-III.
The discovery well GD-11-1 is 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.
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, the company said.
In Mumbai offshore, ONGC made a new pool discovery in the well WO-5-11 (WO-5-G), situated about 160 km west from the nearest coastline in Maharashtra.
On testing, the well flowed oil at the rate of around 1,500 barrels a day and gas at the rate of around 10,000 cubic metres a 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 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 a day along with condensate at the rate of 9.6 cubic metres a day during testing.
“This discovery is envisaged to enhance the commercial viability of this block,” it added.
