ONGC to spend $9 bn developing new oil discoveries.

Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), the country's biggest energy explorer, plans to spend about $9 billion (Rs. 55,712 crore) over the next decade to produce crude oil and natural gas discovered in new blocks off the nation's east coast.

Production from three wells drilled in the Bay of Bengal last year is commercially viable, Director N K Verma said in a phone interview recently in New Delhi, citing a report sent to the oil ministry's Directorate General of Hydrocarbons on December 27. The new reserves will be developed along with the earlier gas finds in the area and output may start in 2016, he said.

BS