Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

ONGC has received green nod for its Rs 350 crore project of drilling 22 exploratory wells in NELP-9 blocks located at Banaskantha, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

According to the proposal, wells would be drilled in blocks CB-CNN-2010/1, 6 and 9, which were awarded to ONGC way back in March 2012 through the NELP-9 bidding process. The petroleum exploratory licence to start the activities as per the production sharing contract (PSC) was granted in February 2013. The initial contract period is seven years.

The clearance has been granted only for exploratory drilling of 22 wells. In case development drilling is to be done in future, the company should take prior clearance from the ministry. The total cost of the project is Rs 350 crore and each well will be drilled up to a depth of 3,000 metres.

ONGC is India's largest government-run corporation and produces about 70% of India's crude oil and natural gas. The corporation is the biggest public sector commercial organization in India with current market capitalization of about $31 billion.