LNG

Two Indian state-backed oil and gas companies have signed an accord to develop the Hatta natural gas field in the Vindhyan basin of Madhya Pradesh in Central India, including building an LNG liquefaction plant to supply the off-grid and transportation fuel markets.

The two companies involved are Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), a company owned by India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as is its partner in the venture, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) whose activities are focused on refining petroleum products and producing petrochemicals, though both are already involved in the LNG sector.

ONGC and IOCL have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a medium-sized LNG plant as part of the Hatta gas field development plan.

“The establishment of the Hatta LNG plant will significantly enhance the Vindhyan Basin's status,”  explained ONGC.

“The plant will utilize cutting-edge technology to produce LNG, a cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels, significantly reducing carbon emissions and aligning with India's climate change mitigation goals,” ONGC added.

LNG sector

ONGC has subsidiaries already involved in LNG including Hindustan Petroleum Corp., the owner of India’s newest LNG import facility, the Chhara terminal located in the state of Gujarat and with 5 million tonnes per annum of capacity.

Another unit, ONGC Videsh, is one of three Indian companies who share a 20 percent stake in the TotalEnergies-operated Mozambique LNG project Area 1 licence in the Rovuma Basin of the southeast African nation.  

IOCL is also involved in LNG through its ownership of the LNG import terminal at Kamarajar Port in the East Coast state of Tamil Naidu with 5 MTPA of regasification capacity.

Both ONGC and IOCL are additionally associated and founding companies of Indian’s largest LNG importer, Petronet LNG which has West Coast import terminals at Dahej and Kochi.

ONGC said that the gas discovery at Hatta “represented the culmination of five decades of sustained exploration” efforts.

“ONGC has already submitted its Field Development Plan (FDP) to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons to monetize its assets in the Hatta area,” stated the company.

The establishment of the Hatta gas field and the LNG plant will enhance the Vindhyan Basin’s status, upgrading it from a Category II to a Category I Basin.

India's sedimentary basins, covering a total area of 3.4 million square kilometres, are divided into three categories.

Category I is for basins with hydrocarbon reserves that are already producing; Category II is for resources with commercial production pending; and Category III are prospective areas where resources may be discovered.

Earnings

The submission of the Hatta gas development plan follows ONGC’s record fiscal-year net profits reported in May 2024 and amounting to 40,526 crore Indian rupees (US$4.85 billion).

However, gross annual revenues fell by over 6 percent to 643,037 crore rupees ($76.94Bln) as prices tumbled.

ONGC’s annual realised natural gas price dropped by 10.8 percent for the year to US$6.55 per million British thermal units from US$7.34 per MMBtu in the previous fiscal year.

The average crude oil price declined by 18.4 percent to US$75.91 a barrel from $93.02 per barrel in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India’s leading energy producer that is set to bring onstream a new gas field in June in the Krishna Godavari Basin in the Bay of Bengal and holds a stake in the Mozambique LNG project, reported a drop in annual net profits while revenues increased.

Oct 15 (LNGJ) - Tohoku Electric, the Japanese utility with 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures on Honshu Island, said it signed an agreement to receive cargoes from the onshore Mozambique LNG export project in southeast Africa being developed by US company Anadarko Petroleum with feed-gas from the Area 1 licence block of the Rovuma Basin. The deliveries will amount to 280,000 tonnes per annum for 15 years from the start of 2020s. The shipments will be on a delivered basis whereby the price includes the shipping costs. Anadarko has a 26.5 percent stake in Mozambique Area 1 and Japanese trading house Mitsui holds 20 percent. Three Indian companies, Bharat Petro Resources, ONGC Videsh and Oil India Ltd., hold a further 30 percent. The other stakeholders in Area 1 are the Thai energy company PTT Exploration and Production and the Mozambique state-owned oil and gas firm ENH.

US major ExxonMobil and Italian energy company Eni have submitted their development plan envisaging an initial two production Trains for the first phase of the onshore Mozambique LNG export project using feed-gas from the Rovuma Basin Area 4 offshore licence.

Anadarko Petroleum has named former BG Group executive Mitch Ingram as Executive Vice President for International, Deepwater and Exploration to lead the US company’s overseas operations and project management, including the Mozambique LNG joint venture in southeast Africa.

Mitsui & Co., the Japanese trading house and stakeholder in the Mozambique onshore LNG project led by Anadarko Petroleum of the US, said it expected a final investment decision on the joint venture by the end of the year.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp, the US oil and natural gas producer onshore and in the Gulf of Mexico, posted a first-quarter net profit as it also made continued progress on the Mozambique LNG export project in southeast Africa.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the US energy company and main stakeholder in the planned onshore Mozambique LNG export plant in southeast Africa, said it received approval from the government for its gas fields development plan.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the US energy company and main stakeholder in the planned onshore Mozambique LNG export plant in southeast Africa, said a long-term sales and purchase agreement was signed with French utility and Electricite de France (EDF) for a period of 15 years.