Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, natural gas has been found in the Andaman basin, confirming the long-held belief that the Andaman Sea is rich in natural gas, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on September 27. The minister informed about the occurrence of natural gas in the Sri Vijayapuram 2 well at a distance of 9.20 NM (17 km) from the shoreline on the east coast of the Andaman Islands at a water depth of 295 metres and target depth of 2,650 metres.
“An ocean of energy opportunities opens up in the Andaman Sea,” said the minister in a post on social media platform X. “Initial production testing of the well in the range of 2212 – 2250 meters has established the presence of natural gas with intermittent flaring. The gas samples were brought by ship to Kakinada, were tested and found to be 87 per cent methane,” he further stated.
According to Puri, the size of the gas pool and commercial viability of the discovery will get verified in the coming months but establishing the presence of hydrocarbons in the Andaman basin is a major step in confirming their long-held belief that Andaman basin is rich in natural gas, “in line with discoveries in the entire area from Myanmar in North to Indonesia in the south in this belt”. “Under the deepwater mission announced by PM Narendra Modi on Independence Day, large number of deepwater exploration wells are planned in our offshore basins in order to find new discoveries and fully exploit our hydrocarbon reserves,” said Puri.
