The ONGC Videsh (OVL), part of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) India, along with partner IRP Red Sea Inc have discovered oil in an offshore block in Egypt for the second time. The company had discovered oil in April 2007 off the North Ramadan Concession in Gulf of Suez.
Although the company did not reveal the size of the oil and gas reserves in the Egypt field, they did say that the flow rate of both oil and gas from the latest discovery is lower than the first discovery.According to the statement, the find in the well North Ramadan-2 (NR-2), the second oil discovery in the block, is located on a separate fault block north of the first oil discovery NR-1A, which produced about 3,000 barrels of oil a day and 15 million standard cubic feet a day of gas during the testing phase. OVL holds 70 per cent in the North Ramadan Concession, while IPR has the remaining 30 per cent. OVL has participating interest in 35 projects in 17 countries across the world. It is currently producing oil and gas from two blocks in Sudan, one each in Vietnam, Syria, Russia and Colombia. It discovered oil in one block in Brazil, which is currently being developed with production expected to begin in 2009-10.
Oil and gas have also been discovered in two blocks in Myanmar, two in Egypt and one in Iran, where the company is studying if it will be commercially viable to produce the oil and gas. The remaining projects are in exploration phase.
This news has coincided with the acquisition of the U.K.-based Imperial Energy for $2.59 billion by the OVL.
