A very good news to the energy security of the country and the pockets of the general public has come to light. India's largest government oil and gas company 'Oil and Natural Gas Corporation' or ONGC has found a new and huge reserve of natural gas in the deep waters of the Mahanadi Basin near the Odisha coast.

After this spectacular success achieved under the 'Samudra Manthan' campaign of the Central Government, now only one question is arising in the mind of every common man that whether this new discovery will reduce the prices of LPG gas cylinders and CNG used in vehicles in India? Let us understand in very simple language what effect this new gas storage is going to have on your kitchen and budget.

Will the prices of LPG and CNG really be cheaper?

To know the correct answer to this question, we have to understand the entire mathematics of India's gas import dependence. At present, India imports half of its requirement i.e. more than 50 percent of LPG and natural gas from abroad. When domestic production of natural gas within our own country's land and sea increases rapidly, we will have to import less expensive gas from other countries.

For importing gas from foreign countries through ships, one has to pay huge transportation charges and taxes. But with this new reserve found near the coast of Odisha, the supply of gas within the country will become much easier, which will reduce the cost of logistics and transportation to a great extent. As soon as commercial gas production starts from this particular well (MDW-28), the total supply of natural gas in the country will increase. With the increase in supply and the implementation of the government's new cluster development model, there will be a huge reduction in the cost of production, whose direct and major benefit can be seen in the future in the form of relief in the prices of LPG cylinders, piped natural gas (PNG) coming to homes and CNG for vehicles.

How was this huge gas reserve discovered?

Let us tell you that this historic discovery has been made during the deep water exploration drive of ONGC. The country's Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri himself formally inaugurated the drilling of MDW-28 well of Mahanadi Basin. After this, when the scientists completed detailed investigation and data analysis and tested the well on September 18, a strong flow of natural gas started automatically with tremendous pressure.

Experts say that a shared infrastructure will be created by connecting other small and big gas reserves around this new discovery. The cost of extracting gas in this way will be much lower and the fuel can be delivered to the market very quickly.

What is the big relief for the common man?

However, it will take some time for this gas to be extracted from the deep waters of the sea, transported to the refineries and then after being processed, reach your home in the form of a cylinder. But there is no doubt that this discovery is going to prove to be a huge and revolutionary step towards making India completely self-reliant in the energy sector and curbing the ever increasing prices of LPG and CNG in the future.