ONGC to Focus on Shale to Hike Output

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. plans to focus on shale and deepwater areas to double production and triple profit by 2030.

“We have to form alliances, we have to go into frontier areas like shale and deepwater around the world,” Bloomberg reported chairman and managing director Sudhir Vasudeva as saying.

The company is likely to spend $22.4 billion to increase output in the next five years and an additional $1 billion to acquire shale assets in the US to meet demand in India, the Bloomberg report said.

Earlier this year, ConocoPhillips and ONGC signed an agreement to develop shale resources in India and North America and to explore for oil and gas off the South Asian nation’s eastern coast.

Bloomberg said that ONGC is close to an agreement to buy its first shale asset in the US and plans to spend at least $1 billion on purchases.