ONGC Again Pushes Back Konaban GGS Project

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Delhi, India)--India's state-owned oil and gas company, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) (BSE:500312) (New Delhi, India), has again pushed back the completion schedule of the Konaban Group Gathering Station (GGS) in Tripura by another six months. The project is now slated to be commissioned in June 2013, as opposed to the previous schedule of December 2012.

The execution of the project has been facing a major roadblock due to the poor road connectivity to the project site. Poor road infrastructure in the landlocked northeast Indian state of Tripura has severely hampered transport of equipment and construction materials, thereby causing delay in the execution of the project. The project also has suffered due to various law and order issues and opposition from the local populace.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed by August 2012. Now, in accordance with the officials of Kazstroy Service Infrastructure India Private Limited (Gurgaon, Haryana), the turnkey contractor for the $56-million project, it may even miss the June 2013 schedule.

The project is aimed at upgrading the gas processing plant at the Konaban GGS, located at Konaban village in the West Tripura District of Tripura, from its current level of about 500,000 standard cubic meters per day to 1.5 million standard cubic meters per day to supply fuel to ONGC Tripura Power Company Limited's (OTPC) (New Delhi, India) upcoming gas-based power plant and to cater to the other consumers, including North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) (Shillong, Meghalaya) and Allied Resins & Chemicals Limited (BSE:524538) (Kolkata, West Bengal).

ONGC's Tripura asset currently has a production capacity of 1.7 million standard cubic meters per day, and it would require production of at least 2.8 million standard cubic meters per day to fuel the 726.6-megawatt (MW) power plant, which is coming up in the asset area.

ONGC is India's leading oil and gas exploration company. ONGC has produced about 600 million metric tons of crude oil and supplied more than 200 billion cubic meters of gas since its inception. The company is involved in exploring for and exploiting hydrocarbons in 26 sedimentary basins of India and owns and operates more than 11,000 kilometers of pipelines in the country.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.