ONGC chairman Subir Raha said yesterday - at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the company - that the reported discoveries were from the gas-rich Krishna-Godavari offshore basin in south-east India and one off the Bombay coast in western India.

Gas had been found 8km off the Amalapuram coast in Andhra Pradesh, in structures GS-15-9 and GS-15-10, and also at a Krishna-Godavari offshore well, in structures G-4-4 and GS-KW-3.

He estimated the three gas finds together could produce up to three million standard cubic metres of gas per day from 2006-07 but added the ONGC was still assessing the commercial viability of the discoveries.

Meanwhile, ONGC has restored 14,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) of the 123,000 bopd production lost when the Bombay High North platform was destroyed by fire after rough seas smashed a vesel into the platform.

Raha said ONGC, which operates the Bombay High field, hoped to have 65,000 bopd of production restored by the end of this month and about 230,000 bpd by the end of September. It would use another nearby platform, called NQO, to increase output from the field.

ONGC would eventually replace the lost platform with a new structure to ensure long-term production as it wanted to continue to produce oil from Bombay High for another 20-25 years. Bombay High was India's largest offshore field, accounting for about 38% of all domestic production and about 14% of India’s total oil needs, said Raha.