"Preliminary examination shows that low resistivity sand perforated in the interval of 2164-68 metre produced gas at the rate of 160,000 million cubic metre per day," officials said.
"The gas reserve is huge and the discovery would form a considerable reserve base of hydrocarbon which would also cater to the needs of supplying gas to the 740 MW gas-based thermal plant at Palatan in South Tripura district.
The thermal project would be completed by 2012, sources said.
Tripura Asset of ONGC has set a target of 60 lakh cubic metres of gas production per day which would be completed by three phases and Rs 1,946.22 crore (Rs 19.46 billion) has already been sanctioned by ONGC board for the first phase to be completed by 2011-12, the officials said.