Gandhinagar

Government-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has spent Rs 13,469.51 crore till December last year on exploration of natural gas in Krishna- Godavari (KG) Basin block but the commercial production is yet to begin.

In a written reply during Question Hour in the Assembly, Gujarat state energy and petrochemicals minister Saurabh Patel today admitted that commercial production of oil or gas from the KG Basin block has not yet begun, but there was a “possibility” of commencement of production in “the near future”.

Patel was replying to a question by Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar, asking the government to give details of total expenditure made on the KG Basin block as on December 2014 and the current status of production from the KG-OSN-2001/3 block.

He added that as on December 2014, GSPC spent Rs 13,469.51 crore on oil and gas production project from the KG Basin block. The GSPC is involved in exploration of gas in the KG basin.

As per GSPC’s annual report for the year 2013-14, which was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly today, the KG-OSN-2001/3 offshore block was awarded to the GSPC under a production sharing contract with the Government of India in February 2003.

“Since then, the company drilled a total of 18 exploratory or appraisal wells. Some of these wells were drilled to 6,000 metres depth which are among the deepest High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) wells globally,” the report stated.

PTI