In an internal message to company employees, ONGC's exploration head D K Pande stated that "we should now resolve ourselves for adding 1 million tonnes of hydrocarbons everyday to our kitty. That should be our target."
In 2005-06, ONGC made 10 new oil and gas finds and accreted in-place reserves of 137 million tonnes of oil equivalent of which over 98 million tonnes had been realised through exploratory efforts.
"Two of the new finds are onland (Turputallu in KG Basin and Mekeypore in Assam Shelf), three in shallow offshore (RV in Mumbai, B-9 in Saurashtra and GS-15-East in KG basin) and five are in the deep water areas off East coast (D, A, U, W & E in Block KG-DWN-98/2)," he said.
Pande said the achievements of 2005-06, including over 6000 line-kilometers of 2D seismic and 19,000 sq km of 3D seismic data, acreage revival in Nagaland and two new exploration centres - Corporate Exploration Centre and Centre of Excellence for Well Logging, sound quite impressive, but were not enough.
"In the era of spiraling oil prices and a perpetually energy-starved country like India the role of a national oil company like ONGC in achieving energy security for the country becomes all the more crucial.
Let me reiterate our strategic goal of doubling our reserves base from 6 billion tonnes to 12 billion tonnes by 2020. By these standards we have miles to go before we can rest," he said.