Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 15 : In the world of energy exploration, the clock is ticking. Arun Kumar Singh Chairman, of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), said on Friday that "If we can't compress exploration time, we will not survive long."
Addressing the 6th South Asian Geoscience Conference & Exhibition, ONGC Chairman said Currently, ONGC's standard process involves three years for exploration alone, followed by an additional two years to develop a well. After that, it takes another five years before oil extraction from sea to surface begins. The whole process spans nearly a decade, ONGC needs to look for solutions to drastically reduce this timeline.
"We need to find a way to compress exploration to one year. If we continue to take ten years to bring oil from the sea to the surface, the game is over," said ONGC Chairman.
With the support from technology giants like Microsoft and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), there has been some progress. These technologies have managed to compress processes that once took months or even years into mere days.
However, for ONGC, this is just the beginning. Stepping outside of their traditional approaches and learning from other industries, particularly space exploration, is also on the agenda.
Advanced processors used in space science are faster and more adaptable than the current ones ONGC relies on.
However, the technological shift comes at a costprocessors could soon be 30 times more expensive than they are today, which will add another layer of complexity.
Aside from speed, deep-water drilling also requires an immense level of precision. ONGC's exploration efforts must often reach depths of up to 1,000 crore (10 billion) feet, where a single error can spell disaster. A misplaced drill could force the team to abandon the well and start all over again at another location, a costly and time-consuming process that heightens the stakes.
Amid these challenges, ONGC is well aware that the luxury of time they can no longer afford. "If we don't see breakthroughs in the next two to three years, this sector might not survive," warned Singh.
For now, ONGC is relying on partnerships with tech leaders and a renewed focus on rapid innovation to buy themselves more time.
The future of deep-water oil exploration depends not just on extracting oil but on accelerating the race against time, compressing exploration cycles, and embracing new technologies before it's too late.
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