India’s leading Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has joined hands with Solar Energy Corporation of India to realize its green energy objectives and undertake renewable energy projects including solar, wind, EV value chain and storage of green hydrogen.

ONGC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SECI to realize its green energy objectives, said a senior officer of the Petroleum Ministry here on Friday. The MoU was signed by ONGC CMD Subhash Kumar and SECI MD Suman Sharma on behalf of the two national energy companies.

“While we appreciate the magnitude and urgency of the climate change challenge, we also understand our commitment towards energy security of the country and are committed to carrying out our business in a sustainable manner. ONGC has a multipronged strategy to make its green energy portfolio richer and has plans to progressively move towards carbon neutrality by effective carbon management and adding Renewable Energy Capacity,” Subhash Kumar said while signing the MoU.

ONGC had been pursuing a green energy agenda through various alternatives and renewable sources of energy and has set a target of producing a minimum of 10 GW of renewable power by 2040 while continuing its focus on the core Exploration and Production business, said a senior officer of the Petroleum Ministry here on Friday.

ONGC is the first non-American company in the world to be a part of the Global Methane Initiative (GMI). Through this program alone, it has so far prevented about 20.48 MMSCM (Million Metric Standard Cubic Meters) of methane gas leakages into the atmosphere. This has saved nearly three lakh tones of CO2 equivalent, the Ministry said.

“Considering the strategic significance of CCUS technology towards the transition to Net-Zero Emissions, ONGC is also partnering with IOC for setting up a CCUS project for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) from depleted oil fields,” the Petroleum Ministry said.

The project would utilize CO2 captured from IOC’s Koyali refinery for injecting it into the depleted reservoirs of the Gandhar oil field in Gujarat. ONGC is also considering India’s first 200-300 MW demonstration Wind offshore power project for which feasibility study is carried out jointly with NTPC, the Ministry said.