ONGC to invest Rs 1 lakh cr in green energy, targets net zero emission by 2038

India's top oil and gas producer ONGC will invest Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030 on energy transition projects as it targets net zero carbon emissions by 2038, its chairman Arun Kumar Singh said on Monday.

The firm joins fellow state-owned oil and gas firms Indian Oil (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), GAIL and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) in preparing roadmaps for net zero emissions as part of the nation's commitment to deal with the climate challenge.

Net-zero for a company means achieving a balance between the quantum of greenhouse gases it places into atmosphere and the amount it takes out.

"We have done our internal workings and are now confident that we can achieve net-zero for Scope-1 and Scope-2 emissions by 2038," Singh told reporters here.

The company is planning to scale up electricity generation from renewable sources from 189 MW to 1 GW by 2030. It already has 5 GW of project planned in Rajasthan and is scouting for a similar capacity, he said adding ONGC would also look at offshore wind farms.

It is also looking at setting up a 1 million tonne per annum green ammonia plant at Mangalore.

"Overall, the investments will be of the order of Rs 1 lakh crore," he said.

The company reversed the declining trend of oil and gas production in 2022-23 and is now looking at raising output with projects both on the east and west coast.

ONGC produced 19.584 million tonne (MT) of oil in 2022-23, up from 19.545 MT of previous year. The output is likely to rise to 21.263 MT in the current fiscal (April 2023 to March 2024), to 21.525 MT in 2024-25 and 22.389 MT in the following fiscal.

Natural gas output is slated to rise from 20.636 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2022-23 to 23.621 bcm in 2023-24, 26.08 bcm in the following year and 27.16 bcm in 2025-26.

This rise in output is due to projects the firm is implementing on both the east and west coast to raise productivity from current fields and bringing new discoveries into production.

As much as Rs 61,200 crore is being invested in 14 development and nine infrastructure projects including KG gas field and rejuvenation of existing producing fields like Mumbai High North and Heera.

Singh said ONGC has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 30,125 crore in 2023-24, almost same as Rs 30,208 crore spent in the previous fiscal year.

The company, which has 1.62 lakh square kilometer of acreage, is looking to take the acreage to 5 lakh square kilometer by acquiring one lakh square km every year, spending Rs 10,000 crore annually on exploration.