Indian oil major to harness wind power

Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Wednesday disclosed plans to also harness wind energy for producing electricity. "We are looking at the use of renewables for all auxiliary power use and are studying feasibility of setting up wind farms in Gujarat for our production process," ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha said on the sidelines of a lecture series organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "Our plan is to set up one or two wind farms in Gujarat to generate electricity for our internal use. Currently the feasibility report is being prepared," said Raha. To tap reserves of some of the small or uneconomic oil and gas blocks, ONGC is firming plans to set up five power generation projects at the well heads as part of its oil-to-power generation proposals, said Raha. Raha also urged investment in new technologies in India to conserve oil and power use, whether for irrigation, industry, commercial or domestic purposes by emphasising on quality standards. Criticising the continuing subsidies doled out, whether for the fertiliser industry or large sections of power consumers like farmers, Raha said ONGC also was forced to sell its gas at a fraction of the real cost. "We are forced to sell gas at a fraction of the cost of production while the private companies buy liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is imported and regassified, at two and a half times the cost of domestic gas. It is like trying to do business from donations," said Raha. Referring to grim global projections on declining oil and gas reserves, Raha said oil production worldwide is expected to peak by 2018, after which there is expected to be an annual decline of an estimated five percent. In the case of gas, the peak production is expected by 2044-45. Refusing to comment on the estimate of peak production in India, Raha said at the current rate of production the country's discovered reserves are likely to last another 18-20 years in the case of oil and another 28 years in the case of gas. According to Avinash Chandra, senior consultant to the state-owned Oil Industry Development Board, with large areas of a potentially hydrocarbon rich region, particularly on the east coast, still to be explored, it is too early to state when the peak production would be reach in India. Of the estimated seven billion tonnes of oil and gas reserves estimated in the east coast region of India, only 0.7 billion tonnes, including the rich gas strike by Reliance Industries, has been discovered so far from just three wells spread over just five percent of the areas given out for exploration.
Source: IANS