Aug 31 (Reuters) - India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp aims to invest 1 trillion rupees ($10.51 billion) over five years to explore its local deepwater and ultradeep water fields, Chairman A.K. Singh said on Monday.
ONGC will drill 87 deepwater and ultradeep water wells by March 2031, he said during a news conference.
India has huge untapped reserves of oil and gas in deepwater blocks, and there are now technologies available to tap those resources, Singh said.
The state-owned integrated oil and gas company needs major discoveries to arrest the decline in its oil and gas output, as India's crude oil production fell in fiscal 2026 for the 11th year in a row.
Singh said ONGC would also invest about 70 billion rupees for building 1.75 million tonnes of strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) at Mangalore in southern India.
India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, is gradually enhancing its strategic petroleum reserve capacity to handle global crude oil volatilities and pricing.
He said the government wants ONGC to build this SPR, for which the company has already acquired land.
Separately, he said ONGC hopes to set up a trading unit either in Dubai or Singapore by the end of March 2027 through a joint venture with a global company. The planned joint venture could annually trade 50 million tonnes of crude oil, refined fuels and gas.
Apart from trading ONGC group companies' products, the JV will also trade third party volumes, he added.
($1 = 95.1625 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, writing by Abhirami G; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Leroy Leo
Source: Reuters