Kolkata, Sept 27: After a gap of four years, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation would resume onshore drilling in West Bengal for oil or gas at a cost of around Rs 25 crore. ONGC sources here said that the spudding (start of drilling) of Gobindapur well No. 1 at Haripur village in Contai sub-division in Midnapore district would begin on September 28 and the drilling would take six months to complete. Stating that this would be the 46th well in Bengal basin, the sources noted that extensive efforts were made by expert scientists to interpret exploration data before this location was firmed up for drilling.
The last drilling of a well in the state at Ichapur was completed in February, 1999. The well would be drilled upto a depth of 3300 metres and cost of the drilling would be around Rs 25 crore.
ONGC had so far spent Rs 700 crore for the exploration of hydro-carbon in the state which included seven off-shore wells. The exploration however yielded no positive result. Bureau Report