Aizawl/Agartala : (IANS) State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has struck gas in northern Mizoram and is continuing prospecting for more hydrocarbons, a minister said on Thursday.

“The ONGC has for the first time found gas in Assam-Mizoram bordering areas under Kolasib district,” Mizoram’s Industries Minister H. Rohluna told the assembly in Aizawl.

“The ONGC is now conducting tests on the gas found. The company has continued its drilling and hydro-fracturing to find out whether more deposits of hydrocarbons are available in the area,” Rohluna said.

The company’s Jorhat basin has been doing exploratory drilling in Kolasib district in northern Mizoram.

ONGC has already found large reserves of natural gas in Assam and Tripura, a company spokesperson said.

Oil India Ltd, another company owned by the central government, has also found gas in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

ONGC, which has been present in Tripura since 1972, has so far drilled about 206 wells in the state half of which are gas bearing.

The ONGC spokesperson said the company has undertaken a Rs.5,050 crore ambitious plan to prospect for more gas in Tripura.

ONGC has also commissioned its first mega commercial power project in the state, run by the ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC).

The Rs.10,000 crore 726 MW capacity gas-based thermal power project (using both water and natural gas) at Palatana, 60 km from here, is ONGC’s first commercial power project in India.

ONGC, in association with Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd and the Tripura government, would also set up a Rs.5,000 crore fertiliser plant in northern Tripura.

“The process is on to set up the fertiliser plant,” said another ONGC official.