ONGC says Brazil block output to rise sharply by Dec

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp expects crude oil output at its Brazilian field to increase sharply to 40,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, helping the energy-starved country expand its overseas production.
The BC-10 deepwater block in Brazil, which currently produces about 5,500 bpd, started contributing to ONGC's overseas production from July. ONGC has a 15 percent stake in BC-10.
State-run ONGC currently gets about 160,000-170,000 bpd from its foreign assets, which have been bought by its ONGC Videsh arm to secure energy supplies for India's expanding economy.
"We are producing from one well and we plan to put five more wells on production by December," R. S. Butola, managing director of ONGC Videsh, said of the Brazilian project on Wednesday.
Output from two of its major projects, Sakhalin I in Russia and Greater Nile Oil project in Sudan, was set to fall this year due to natural decline, he said.
The Sakhalin I project, in which ONGC has a 20 percent stake, has been producing oil for several years and reached peak production of 11.2 million tonnes in 2007.
"The output has declined but from late 2011 or early 2012 it will gain," Butola said. In the Sudan project, output has fallen to about 175,000 bpd, he said.
Crude oil output from from its San Cristobal project in Venezuela can rise above 40,000 bpd from a current 32,000 bpd, he said, but did not elaborate.
ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma said ONGC had nearly doubled crude output from Imperial Energy's assets in West Siberia to 11,500 bpd. ONGC completed its acquisition of Imperial this year.
ONGC wants to increase its local oil output by 14 percent to 580,000 bpd and gas production by 16 percent to 72 million standard cubic metre a day by the end of the 2012/13 fiscal year.
As part of this, ONGC would invest 300 billion rupees ($6.25 billion) to improve output from its ageing fields, Sharma said.
The firm, which contributes about two-thirds of India's oil output, plans to invest over $1 billion to bring east coast oil and gas fields to production starting mid-2010, said Sudhir Vasudeva, head of offshore operations at ONGC.