30-11-05 The second oil well at the Tarapur block being drilled by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) struck oil. GSPC, the operator of the 1,618 sq km Tarapur oil block, had first struck oil in May this year.
"Oil was discovered in the second well at Tarapur," sources told.

The well, Tarapur No 2, has so far been drilled up to a depth of 2,500 metres and digging will continue.
"We struck oil at around 1,500 metres," sources said.
It will take GSPC another six months to begin commercial production from the second well.

In the interim, it will have to submit a production plan to the directorate of hydrocarbons in New Delhi. The company also plans to drill two more wells in the same block.
The company started drilling the second well in September. The first well, Tarapur No 1, was drilled up to 2,250 metres and GSPC had said that initial recoverable reserves are 5-7 mm barrels.

The Tarapur block has been the second major discovery for GSPC, as an operator, after discovering oil in the Dholka block in August '04. While commercial production has already begun from one well in Dholka, commercial production from Tarapur will start only next year after the drilling of the third well is completed.
In addition, the company is now looking at E&P opportunities abroad and has bid for two blocks in Western Australia in a joint venture with Oilex of Australia, GAIL and Prize Petroleum-HPCL.

Also, in June this year, the state-owned company had announced a huge gas discovery in the third well it was drilling in the KG basin along the country's east coast.
According to state government estimates, the reserve could be as much as 20 tcf, worth $ 50 bn.