The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to realise its green energy objectives.
The MoU was signed by ONGC chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) Subhash Kumar and SECI managing director (MD) Suman Sharma on behalf of the two national energy companies on Thursday in New Delhi.
“The MoU provides a broad, overarching framework for ONGC and SECI to collaborate and cooperate for undertaking renewable energy projects including solar, wind, solar parks, EV value chain, green hydrogen, storage, etc.”, the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas said in a statement.
“The partnership will enable ONGC to strengthen its footprint in renewables, especially solar,” it added.
Speaking on the occasion, ONGC CMD Subhash Kumar said: “While we appreciate the magnitude and urgency of the climate change challenge, we also understand our commitment towards energy security of the country and are committed to carrying out our business in a sustainable manner.”
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“ONGC has a multipronged strategy to make its green energy portfolio richer and has plans to progressively move towards carbon neutrality by effective carbon management and adding Renewable Energy Capacity,” it added.
SECI MD Suman Sharma said, “SECI is happy to associate with ONGC in this path-breaking initiative that will open new avenues of sustainable development and promises to take India to new frontiers of technology and scale,” Sharma added.
“We are dedicated towards fulfilling India’s climate commitments and look forward to a continuing partnership,” the SECI MD further said.
ONGC, India’s leading oil & gas company, has been pursuing green energy agenda through various alternatives and renewable sources of energy. It has set a target of producing a minimum of 10 GW of renewable power by 2040 while continuing its focus on the core E&P business.
ONGC is the first non-American company to be a part of the Global Methane Initiative (GMI). Through this program alone, ONGC could so far prevent approximately 20.48 MMSCM of methane gas leakages into the atmosphere with an environmental benefit of approximately 3 lakh tons of CO2 Equivalent.
Considering the strategic significance of CCUS technology towards transition to Net-Zero Emissions, ONGC is partnering with IOC for setting up a CCUS project for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) from depleted oil fields.
The project will utilize CO2 captured from IOC’s Koyali refinery for injecting into the depleted reservoirs of Gandhar oil field in Gujarat. ONGC is also considering India’s first 200-300 MW demonstration Wind offshore power project for which feasibility study is carried out jointly with NTPC Ltd.