State-owned ONGC aims to double its domestic exploration and production acreage to 500,000 square kilometres over the next five years, the company’s director-finance Vivek Chandrakant Tongaonkar told FE.

“The government of India has opened up 1 million sq km of no-go areas. We have plans to be in about 500,000-sq km area within the next five years and we plan to spend additional Rs 10,000 crore every year over the next five years focusing on exploration,” he said. 

Last year, ONGC acquired more than 32,000-sq km acreage taking its total area to around 180,000 sq km, the company’s director-exploration Sushma Rawat had said. Currently, after formalisation of the ninth round of the open acreage licensing policy (OALP), ONGC’s total acreage will be up to around 250,000 sq km.

When asked whether the company would jointly bid for the blocks put under the 10th OALP round, Tongaonkar said the company would be looking at all the areas on offer, and depending upon the risk capacity and the investment requirements, will decide whether it will partner with any other oil and gas major.

The state-run upstream major is going big on its exploration activities, aiming for a substantial increase in its oil and gas output. For this, the company has laid plans to reverse output decline from its  matured fields. 

“So focus would be on maturing as well as the exploration fields, because if you see the government has already mentioned that for new gas, which is there for nomination fields, we will get a better price, which is higher than the normal price that we are getting for the APM (administered pricing mechanism) gas. So we’ll continue to focus over there,” he said. 

“Plus there are a lot of reserves available with us and we are sure that we can get more production from our major blocks. In this case we also tied up recently with bp as a technical service provider for the Mumbai High field,” he said, adding the company’s focus continues to be on existing blocks where it has been able to produce hydrocarbons for a very long period. 

In terms of new exploration areas, the company is expecting its Daman upside field to come on stream starting 2026-27. “The work is already going on. We are setting up the facilities there and are expected to be completed by the beginning of 2026,” he said. 

Additionally, the company expects gas production to begin from the DFS II blocks in the western offshore. “There also we envisage the production to start from 2026 or 2027,” said the director.

The company plans to spend Rs 36,920 crore in FY26 focusing on the exploration, drilling, capital & integration projects. 

Furthermore, the company plans to spend Rs 1 lakh crore in development of its renewable energy portfolio including solar, wind, green hydrogen, and pump hydro projects and has a target of achieving 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

“We would also be looking at green hydrogen, green ammonia, and offshore wind. We are planning to spend about Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030 on these projects,” he said.