ONGC Resumes Drilling After Eight Years in West Bengal

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has decided to undertake an operation of drilling 11 new oil wells in West Bengal. The project work has already been started in Ladhi near Malda. Daulatpur is possibly going to be the next location for a similar drilling work. Each of these wells will involve an investment of about Rs 40 crores. OIL will be investing 25 percent of the total amount and the rest will be taken care of by ONGC. It is expected that these 11 wells will be completely drilled by June 2014. The company is trying to complete the project as soon as possible and focus on the upcoming projects in Bengal and elsewhere.

Eight years back, in 2005 similar drilling work was carried out in the state. About 60 wells are drilled in the past 50 years in West Bengal which includes a collective expenditure of about Rs 700 crores. But due to the lack of desirable results during this period, perhaps the process was kept in a standstill for these eight years. According to the authorities, this is a continuous process and the result of the current project will play an important role in determining the possibility of any further oil extraction project in the state.