ONGC to take over Tapti field facilities

Reliance Industries and BG pulled out of the field after its output started dropping to zero

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will take over a part of the abandoned assets of the western offshore Tapti gas field from its joint venture partners Reliance Industries (RIL) and BG after the output dropping to zero.

In April 2014, RIL, BG and ONGC had decided to abandon Tapti field of the Panna-Mukta-Tapti consortium because of the wells' poor output. It will be the first offshore field to be abandoned in India.

The field consortium partners are Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with 40 per cent stake and British Gas India and Reliance Industries with 30 per cent stake each, respectively.

In a presentation to analysts after the company's fourth-quarter results, Reliance Industries (RIL) said: "Tapti abandonment (has) achieved resolution with Government of India. ONGC will take over Tapti Part A facilities in accordance with Tapti Production Sharing Contract (PSC) along with abandonment obligation. Joint venture will be responsible for abandonment obligation for the Tapti Part B facilities."

Gas output from the Tapti field has almost halved to 14.2 billion cubic feet (bcf) in 2014-15 against 27.3 bcf in 2013-14, Oil production was 0.2 million barrels, down 22 per cent from previous fiscal.
 
While gas from Panna-Mukta is sold at $5.73 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), gas from Tapti is sold at $5.57 per mmBtu.

T K Sengupta, Director, Offshore ONGC had last week told Business Standard that ONGC would use the Tapti field assets, for production of gas from the neighbouring Daman field. The assets include sub-sea pipelines, gas gathering stations and process platform.

The Panna and Mukta fields are primarily oilfields while Tapti is a gas field. These are located in the offshore Bombay basin. The production sharing contract for the fields was signed in 1994. While the Panna and Mukta fields began production in December 1994, the Tapti field began production in 1997-98.

Consortium sources said the abandonment or decommissioning of the field would cost around $300-400 million.