New Delhi, Apr 28 (IANS): The country's largest oil and gas explorer ONGC on Wednesday said it will expand its upstream activity in the country by acquiring much larger acreage through the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).

The company which is in the midst of a major restructuring exercise proposes to speed ahead on exploring new oil and gas blocks in the country so that the stagnating domestic production is increased.

It has told the government that there are certain issues around structure where decisive steps can be evaluated only once the industry is completely under GST regime but the company remains committed to invest and enhance the country's domestic production of hydrocarbons.

With regard to engaging with other players in E&P activities, ONGC's strategy is to move up higher in the value chain to concentrate on areas where the expected risk-reward payoff offers better business opportunities for growth. Over the years ONGC benefitted from the participation of other players and opportunity specific alliances which have helped the company enhance value for itself, besides releasing ONGC resources to pursue more promising opportunities with perceived better risk return tradeoff.

The company said that in its efforts to augment production of oil and gas, it is endeavouring to engage all interested players so that the concept of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' is the central theme of our domestic project execution.

On the back of enabling policy facilitation by the Government, ONGC has rolled out its separate Gas vertical, which will increase its activities in the gas sector leveraging on its strong domestic and international presence. It is also taking steps to augment its renewables portfolio.

ONGC is also looking into strategic relationships and close alliances with key international players through ONGC Videsh. The intention is to invite foreign participation to explore Category-II and Category-III basins which match size and scale of expectations and portfolio of these large players.

The company said that despite uneconomical gas prices, it has been aggressively pursuing its deep water projects in the East Coast and a couple of shallow water projects in the West Coast.

The government has been continuously encouraging ONGC to play a much larger role in the context of India's oil and gas sector. Besides, there have been regular interactions of ONGC with various stakeholders including the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), in order to further augment the role of ONGC in the domestic upstream sector. The expectation and the strategy for ONGC is to act as the fulcrum around which an ecosystem for a thriving oil and gas industry in the country is there, the company said.