Overview
- ONGC commenced drilling the first deepwater appraisal/exploratory well MN-DW18-1-H-D in the Mahanadi Offshore Basin on Saturday, July 25, 2026, marking the operational start of the Samudra Manthan campaign.
- The well is the first of four planned deepwater wells that the Petroleum Ministry says will systematically evaluate the basin to identify recoverable hydrocarbon resources.
- ONGC says the site is about 23 nautical miles from the Konark discovery and builds on its recent Utkal and Konark finds that raised the basin's prospectivity.
- The campaign is backed by ONGC’s Deepwater Exploration Mission Centre (DeepX) and will use advanced deepwater drilling technology enabled by a decade of policy reforms such as HELP and the OALP.
- Officials cite an estimated offshore resource potential of over 5,600 MMTOE for India’s eastern and western basins, and the next concrete milestones to watch are results from this well, the three follow-up wells, and any flow tests that would indicate commercial recoverability.