23-06-09 India's biggest oil explorer ONGC has struck oil and gas in three new blocks, one of these finds is its most significant in decades and holding the promise of significantly narrowing the energy-starved country's demand-supply gap in the natural gas sector.
The gas find at Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off the Andhra coast could prove as rich as the Reliance Industries' D-6 block, which, at its peak, is expected to double India's current natural gas output. The other two discoveries included an oil find in Charada-3 offshore block in Cambay basin and oil and gas find in Matar in Vadodara district, both in Gujarat.

ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma confirmed the three discoveries. A senior official in the company said the KG basin find could have an estimated reserve of 10 tcf of gas.
Even the Charada-3 oil find was "significant", the official said, calling it "a large accumulation spread in about 8 km of area." The success in Matar was notable as the block was earlier awarded to a combine of Niko Resources and GSPC, which didn't have much success in finding hydrocarbons, the ONGC official said.

"We have notified the finds to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH)."
"If the approvals come in, it would take about three to four years for production from these fields to begin," ONGC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma told.