New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has put the second well in its promising KG basin block, known as KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 project, into production, said its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Subhash Kumar. "We have started gas production from second deep-water U1B well in KG-DWN-98/2 Block's Cluster-II on August 31, 2021," Kumar told shareholders at the Maharatna PSU's annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday. He, however, did not mention when the block will hit peak production.
ONGC had recorded the production of first gas from the $5-billion KG-DWN-98/2 block in the Bay of Bengal in June 2020. Augmentation of production from the well was stalled in the wake of supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
ONGC's KG-DWN-98/2 project is expected to have a total peak gas production rate of around 16 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per Day (MMSCMD) and peak oil production rate of around 80,000 barrels per day. A total of 34 wells, including 15 oil wells and eight gas-producing wells, are planned to be drilled in the KG Basin block operated by ONGC. The block is expected to reverse the consistent decline in ONGC's oil and gas production from its ageing fields.
Around 10 discoveries were made and 12 were monetised in FY 21, Kumar told shareholders. He added that backed by an intensive exploration programme, accretion of in-place reserves has been 92.37 million tonnes of oil equivalent during the previous fiscal. "We established commercial oil in Bengal basin, which was dedicated to the nation as the 8th producing basin of India," he said. ONGC drilled 480 wells were drilled during the year, 100 of these were exploratory wells while the rest 380 were development and side-tracked wells.
The oil PSU produced 22.5 Million Tonnes (MT) of crude oil in 2020-21 and 22.816 billion cubic meters of gas.
"During the financial year 2020-21, three major projects (one development and two infrastructure) with an investment of around Rs 3,333 crore were completed," Kumar said. "Looking forward, over the next few years, domestic production is expected to be driven by a strong output from our Krishna Godavari (KG Basin) deep-water field in the eastern offshore as well as Heera in the shallow waters of Western offshore," said the CMD.
During 2020-21, the redevelopment of the Nandasan field in Mehsana, Gujarat was approved at a cost of Rs 445 crore. Also, the redevelopment project of the Linch field in the same asset has been approved by ONGC. "With this, 16 major projects are presently under implementation with a total project cost of around Rs 61,133 crore and with envisaged oil and gas gain in excess of 100 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas," said Kumar.
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