ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has declared a 2019 gas discovery in deepsea block in Brazil as commercially viable and has now entered the development stage that will bring it to production, the firm said in a statement.

OVL had registered a major gas discovery in 2019 in its deep offshore block BM-SEAL-4, Brazil, located in the Sergipe Alagoas Basin. Brazil’s Petrobras is the operator of the block with 75 per cent Participating Interest (PI) while OVL has the remaining 25 per cent stake.

The company said it “after detailed evaluation (has) now enters into the development stage with the submission of the Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) for the block BM-SEAL-4”.

The field also holds oil reserves.

The block development module of Petrobras envisages the installation of a shared FPSO and a gas pipeline.

“The name suggested to the Brazilian regulator for the field is Budião,” it said. “The development module is presently in the contract planning phase and is expected to start production after 2026. The Consortium plans to continue all operational activities for submission of the Development Plan to the Regulator and meeting the target for the first oil.” The firm neither gave investment nor production details.