Essar bags offshore gas block in Vietnam
Essar bags offshore gas block in Vietnam
PTI
New Delhi: Essar Oil has bagged an offshore gas block in Vietnam’s prolific Song Hong basin, where it plans to invest $60 million in hydrocarbon prospecting.
Mauritius-based Essar Exploration and Production Ltd, a subsidiary of Essar Oil, was awarded the 5,925 sq km block under Vietnam’s recent licensing round, in which seven offshore blocks were offered, a company release said here.
The blocks sits in water depth of 60-70 meters and is believed to be gas bearing.
The company has committed detailed geological and geophysical studies, reprocessing of selected existing 2D seismic data, acquisition, processing and interpretation of fresh 3D seismic of 1,000 sq km, and drilling of two exploratory wells with 3,500 meters target depth. “The exploration phase is estimated to last five years and the investment for this programme will be $60 million," it said.
Essar Oil is in the process of consolidating its upstream oil and gas exploration and production activities under its proposed subsidiary, EEPL. “This will help build a strong, fully integrated oil company with upstream, refining and downstream marketing activities."
Once this exercise is completed, Essar Oil will have eight oil and gas blocks and one coal bed methane block. This includes onshore blocks in Madagascar, an offshore block in Nigeria, an onshore block at Mehsana in Gujarat, a Coal Bed Methane block at Raniganj in West Bengal, offshore field Ratna and R-Series and two onshore blocks in Assam.
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