By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 12, 2016 : Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday inaugurated the National Seismic Programme (NSP) at Taranga village in Baleswar district.

The national seismic programme aims at tracing hydro-carbon resources across the country and Mahanadi Basin in Odisha has been chosen as the first location for the roll out of the NS, according to a press notification issued by the Minister’s office.

The 2D seismic survey of unapprised area in Mahanadi Basin (onland) would establish potential of hydrocarbon resources in the state.

Inaugurating the event, Pradhan said “No attempt had been made to explore the natural gas and oil for last 25 years. This work has begun from today for which over Rs 5000 crore will be spent. The scientists made a survey of this place and expected presence of huge quantities of natural resources. ”, Pradhan said.

“If oil and gas is traced from here, the Mahanadi Basin could emerge as a hub for hydrocarbon exploration and production activities in the entire East”, said Pradhan.

The total investment for the seismic acquisition in the onland Mahanadi Basin is Rs 79.57 Cr. The outcome from the NSP would contribute to better understanding of the sub-surface with petroleum systems across wider geological ages to explore the hydrocarbon reserves in Odisha.

In the Mahanadi Basin, Bhadrak-Jajpur area of about 2189 LKM and Chilika Lake area of about 341 LKM have been identified covering primarily Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of the state under the programme.

The acquisition stage is scheduled from October 2016 to June 2018 while processing and interpretation are scheduled from July 2018 to December 2018.

Under this programme, ONGC and OIL have been entrusted to conduct 2D seismic acquisition, processing and interpretation (API) across India.

While ONGC has been assigned to carry out 2D seismic API of approximately 40,835 Line Kilo Meter (LKM) in onland part of 26 sedimentary basins in 18 states/ Union Territory of India including Odisha’s Mahanadi basin, OIL has been assigned to carry out 2D seismic API of 7408 LKM in the state of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.

The NSP for 2D seismic API project will be completed by March, 2019.

Odisha minister for steel and mines, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, CMD of ONGC, Dinesh K Saraf and other senior officials of Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry were present on the occasion.