ONGC to invest Rs 10,600 crore in western offshore fields

Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's biggest energy explorer, will invest Rs 10,600 crore in raising production from its western offshore fields.

ONGC board has approved third phase of redevelopment of its prime Mumbai High South oil and gas field at a cost of Rs 6,069 crore and integrated development of Mukta, Bassein and Panna formations at an investment of Rs 4,620 crore, the company said in a statement.

The Mumbai High South Redevelopment (Phase-III) "will lead to incremental gain of 7.547 million tonne crude oil and 3.864 billion cubic meter gas by 2030," it said.

The project is designed to carry forward the success of the previous two phases of redevelopment project and give a new lease of life to the giant field, which has been in production for over three decades.

The project comprises drilling 36 new wells and 34 sidetrack wells, and facilities. The facilities under the project are scheduled to be installed by April, 2017. Drilling of wells and the overall project completion is scheduled for March, 2019.

It "aims to further develop of L-II, S1 and Basal Clastic reservoirs along with the major L-III reservoir and integrating the required inputs," the statement said.

The Integrated Development of Mukta, Bassein and Panna Formations, located at a water depth of 50-70 meters and about 80-90 kilometres from Mumbai coast, is designed to carry forward the success of the previous two phases of redevelopment through installation of booster compressors.

"In order to further enhance the field life and increase recovery, this project envisages increasing gas pressure from 10 to 27 kg per square centimetre," it said.

The incremental production is expected to start in 2014-15 with peak incremental production rate of 10 million standard cubic meters per day of gas, 950 barrels of oil per day and about 1100 cubic meters of condensate a day by 2017-18.

The cumulative production till 2027-28 is pegged at 19.56 billion cubic meters of gas, 1.97 million cubic meter of condensate and 1.83 million tons of oil. The gas and condensate will be evacuated to Hazira Plant.

The project envisages drilling of 18 wells including 5 subsea Wells, installation of one new process platform having gas processing and compression facilities, one nine-slot well head platform and other facilities, associated pipelines and one living quarter platform.

The project is scheduled for completion by April 2017, the statement added.