Mumbai, Feb. 23: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is planning to invest Rs 10,000 crore in capacity expansion every year for the next three years, said chairman Subir Raha.

The navratna PSU, where the government holds a 51 per cent stake, has around 57 per cent of the oil exploration acreage in the country under its belt.

The Sagar Sammridhi project, launched in August 2003 to explore and develop deep-water acreage granted under the new exploration licensing policy, has struck gas at the Krishna-Godavari basin at a depth of 428 metres, the company said.

“A net thickness of 56m hydrocarbon-bearing sands has been encountered in the well,” ONGC informed the stock exchanges.

“The company is moving towards a vertical integration,” said Raha.

Raha is optimistic about the potential of ONGC in a country where the compounded annual growth rate till 2025 is expected to be 4.1 per cent, the highest in the world.

“We are adding more reserves than what we can produce,” he said. Further, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) is currently operating at 115 per cent of its rated capacity, a sea change from the time ONGC took over the company from the Aditya Birla group.

He expects the gas flaring to be brought down to zero by 2005, thereby reducing wastage and increasing gas utilisation.