State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made two significant back-to-back natural gas discoveries in a Mahanadi basin deepwater block in the Bay of Bengal. With this, its calculated game plan of venturing into high-risk deepwater exploration starts yielding results. 

The company has made the discoveries in Block MN-DWHP-2018/1, which it had won in the third round of auction under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy in 2019, two sources with direct knowledge of the development have said. 

Significantly, the discoveries have been made in an area which previously was classified as a no-go area because of national security interests. 

The first discovery, named Uktal, is in 714 metres of water depth and flowed more than 3 lakh cubic metres per day of gas during initial testing, they have said, adding that the other find is at a water depth of 1,110 metres. 

ONGC has notified the discoveries to upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and is now doing pool size and commercial viability assessments. 

For a nation that imports roughly half of its gas needs, finding new reserves augurs well for its energy security. India is targeting raising the share of natural gas in its energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from the current 6.3 per cent and more domestic production will aid that.