Andhra govt issues NOC to Vedanta to drill 20 onshore oil & gas wells in Krishna district

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government has issued a conditional ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) to Vedanta Ltd (Cairn Oil & Gas Division) for drilling 20 onshore wells in Krishna district.

According to a recent Government Order, Vedanta Limited (Cairn Oil & Gas Division) has submitted a representation, stating that their firm was awarded the work of development of the Onshore Oil and Gas Field under the Discovered Small Field (DSF) Policy, 2018.

Further, they requested to grant a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for drilling wells at 35 locations in the block located in various village limits for Onshore Oil and Gas Development and Production, from the Water Resources Department of Andhra Pradesh, as the Bandar Canal passes through the centre of the proposed block.

“After careful examination of the matter, the government hereby issues ‘No Objection Certificate’ to M/s Vedanta Limited (Cairn Oil & Gas Division), Mumbai, for drilling 20 Nos. of wells at the locations mentioned at para (2) above subject to the terms & conditions as mentioned at para (3) above,” the order said.

The Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation), Water Resources Department, Vijayawada, the Chief Engineer, Krishna Delta System, Vijayawada, and the Collector of Krishna District shall take necessary action accordingly, it added.

According to the order, the NoC can be issued only from the irrigation point of view and is purely temporary in nature. The applicant shall obtain all required permissions from the departments concerned before commencing operations, as per norms. No water shall be drawn from irrigation canal sources such as the Bandar Canal, KDS canal network, drainage network, ponds, reservoirs, or any other surface-water source, it said.

The shares of Vedanta Ltd hit their one-year peak on Friday, with the stock surging over 35 per cent this year so far.

The stock has jumped 35.29 per cent this year on the BSE. Shares of the firm hit a 52-week high of Rs 607.65 during the intra-day trade.

Shares of the company have been surging for the past 13 trading sessions. During this period, the stock has jumped 17.44 per cent.

The National Company Law Tribunal on Tuesday last week approved the plan to split Vedanta into five different listed entities. After the demerger, the base metals business will be housed in Vedanta Ltd, while Vedanta Aluminium, Talwandi Sabo Power, Vedanta Steel and Iron and Malco Energy will be the other four entities.

Shares of group firm Hindustan Zinc also hit its 52-week high of Rs 646 during the day. The company’s stock has zoomed 43.50 per cent

this year.