ONGC board approves Rs 5,219 cr for Daman gas project

Production from project to commence July 2016 at a peak rate of 8.35 mmscmd of gas and 9,286 barrel of condensate a day

State-owned petroleum explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said its board on Thursday approved a proposal to invest Rs 5,219 crore to enhance natural gas and condensate production from the Tapti Daman block in the Arabian sea.

“The Daman Development Project is located 100 km from the Daman coast and includes additional development of C-24 field apart from monetisation of B-12 marginal fields,” the company said in a statement.

Production from the project is expected to commence in July 2016 at a peak rate of 8.35 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) of gas and 9,286 barrel of condensate a day.

The company is likely to produce a cumulative 27.6 billion cubic metre of gas and 5 million cubic metre of condensate over two decades to 2035.

“Coming after the Mumbai High South Redevelopment project (Phase-3) approved in the last Board meeting earlier this month for Rs 5,813 crore, this approval flags the company’s aggressive investment posture to ramp up production from the Western Offshore,” ONGC said.  The gas and condensate produced in the Daman project would be evacuated to Hazira in Gujarat through the Tapti process facilities.

The project aims at installation of seven Well-Head platforms with associated pipelines and drilling of 28 wells.The project is scheduled for completion in five years through 2019.

In a related development, ONGC subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) today commissioned a 2.2 million tonne per annum Petrochemical Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (PFCCU). The unit can produce 20 per cent of its product as polymer grade propylene apart from 25 per cent of product as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The PFCCU will enable MRPL to triple LPG production from this 15 MT grass-root refinery.