State-owned ONGC on Wednesday said it will invest Rs 17,615 crore in the current fiscal to drill a record 535 wells to augment oil and gas production.
The firm drilled 503 wells in 2017-18, the highest number in last 27 years. Of these, 119 were exploratory and 384 development wells.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp said in a statement that in order to assess the prospectivity of existing acreages in a time-bound manner and add to the reserves, more focus was laid on exploratory drilling.
It had targeted to spend Rs 16,038 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31 to drill 496 wells including 110 exploratory and 386 development wells.