Indian Shale Oil and Gas Development Target of ConocoPhillips and ONGC

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India is accelerating its strategy for shale oil and gas exploration and exploitation. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) (Dehradun, India) is in the process of finalizing a technology partnership with energy major ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston, Texas) to explore the country's resources.

Earlier this year, the two corporations signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore and develop shale gas assets in India, North America and other regions.

Speaking at the World Energy Policy Summit in New Delhi this week, Sudhir Vasudeva, chairman and managing director of ONGC said, "We have given them all the data we have on shale gas acreage. Based on their analysis and experience, they will bring they will now bring their understanding."

The chairman said that a team from ConocoPhillips could visit ONGC in December to discuss collaboration in shale gas development. "We will finalize joint exploration plans once we get a fix of resources."

ONGC plans to explore Damodar, Cambay, KG and Cauvery basins for shale gas in the first phase. An integrated study has shown that the Damodar Basin has a potential of about 35 trillion cubic feet, of which 8 trillion cubic feet is recoverable.

ONGC has drilled exploratory wells in its Damodar Basin blocks and expects to launch the partnership in shale gas exploration through joint studies of opportunities in the identified areas.

In another shale assets venture, ONGC, which owns LLC Nord Imperial (Tomsk/Moscow, Russia), an independent oil and gas company operating in the Tomsk region of Russia's western Siberian basin, is in the process of developing local shale resources.

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