Introduction

As part of our curriculum, Training in relevant industrial establishment is held every year. This year I,
Student of M.Sc. Tech (Applied Geology), visited Forward Base, ONGC, Ahmedabad Asset.

Ahmedabad happens to be a prolific oil producing asset of ONGC falling under western onshore basin.
All the working area of ONGC with commercial production of hydrocarbon is broadly divided into two
major components i.e. Basin and Asset. The basin is the work Centre where all the G&G (Geological and
Geophysical) activities are carried out and drillable prospect are identified. All the necessary maps,
geological sections are prepared at the basin. All the seismic data are also interpreted at the Basin. Thus,
at the basin, all the geological, geophysical, geochemical data are generated and interpreted for the
purpose of exploratory activities.

Ahmedabad asset has many producing fields like Kalol, Limborda, Wadu Paliyad, Nandej etc. These are
almost matured fields, most of them having oldest hydrocarbon producing area. We are assigned to
forward base of Ahmedabad asset. Ahmedabad is a completely commercial city located in central part of
Gujarat. It is situated close to Sabarmati River. The nearest big cities are Vadodara in south, Mehsana in
the north. It is usually a very hot place with scanty rain fall during the month of June and July.
Ahmedabad is connected by road/railway to Vadodara, Surat and nearby cities.

This forward base comes under the (WOB) Western Onshore Basin, Baroda and functions as an interface
between WOB and Ahmedabad asset. Its Base controls all the geological operations pertaining to
exploratory and development drilling and monitoring activities. At forward Base Ahmedabad, we were
given a comprehensive introduction to geological operation and techniques pertaining to well site
activities. The sequence of operation and the intricacies involved therein were thoroughly explained by
the geologists of forward base,

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CAMBAY BASIN: AN OVERVIEW

The Cambay rift Basin, a rich Petroleum Province of India, is a narrow, elongated rift half graben. The
total area of the basin is about 53,500 sq. km. In 1958, ONGC drilled its first exploratory well on Lunej
structure near Cambay. This turned out to be a discovery well, which produced oil and gas.

Geographic Location of the basin:

The Cambay rift Basin extends from Surat in the south to Sanchor in the north. In the north, the basin
narrows, but tectonically continues beyond Sanchor to pass into the Barmer Basin of Rajasthan. On the
southern side, the basin merges with the Bombay Offshore Basin in the Arabian Sea. The basin is roughly
limited by Lat: 21'00' - 25°00'N & Long: 71°30' - 73°30'E.

Geologic location of the basin:

This Basin, the southern continuation of the Barmer-Sanchor Graben is a narrow elongated (NNW-SSE
trending) intra-cratonic rift basin. It is situated between Saurashtra craton to the west, Aravalli swell on
the northeast and Deccan craton to the southeast. In the south, it extends into Cambay Gulf and
ultimately into the Arabian Sea. A large part of the basin is covered by Quaternary sediments. Cenozoic
outcrops are rare and occur only on the fringes of the basin. The extensional architecture of the basin is
defined by three major Precambrian trends viz., NNW-SSE trend related to Dharwarian orogeny, NE-SW
trend related to Aravalli orogeny, and ENE-WSW trend related to Satpura orogeny.

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Different Tectonic Zones with in the Basin:

Based on the cross trends the basin has been divided into

five tectonic blocks.

From south to north, the blocks are:

1. Narmada block

2. Jambusar - Broach block

3. Cambay - Tarapur block

4. Ahmedabad - Mehsana block

5. Sanchor - Tharad block

Ahmedabad

- Mehsana block:

>>The largest block in the basin, limited to the south by Nawagam-Wasna basement uplift and its
northern boundary (north of Mehsana horst) is arbitrary. >>Block is segmented longitudinally into two
major half grabens each with prominent down to

basin faults dipping east (most active during Palaeocene-Eocene, die upwards in the section and
absent in post-Miocene section).

>>NNW-SSE aligned structures.

Mehsana horst - Basement controlled topographic high(middle of the basin) formed due to rejuvenation
of along ancient faults after the deposition of cambay shale. On the horst crest cambay shale is directly
overlain by Miocene sediments and kalol and kadi formations pinch out on the flanks of this horst.

>>Major fields include Kalol, Sanand, Ahmedabad, Wavel, Bakrol, North and South Kadi,

Indora, Jhalora, Santhal-Balol-Lanwa etc.

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