India’s national oil company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) says it has set a new world record for the drilling of an oil or gas well in the deepest waters by a mobile offshore drilling unit.
Transocean’s ultra-deepwater drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG-1 was employed to drill the record well NA7-1 offshore eastern India in the Bay of Bengal on block KG-DWN-2004/1.
ONGC said that the well was drilled to a total depth of 5,625m (18,456ft) in waters 3,165m (10,384ft) in depth.
By drilling the NA7-1 well, the Transocean drillship surpassed the prior water depth record of 3,107m (10,194ft) achieved with the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG-2 drillship working for Reliance Industries in the Bay of Bengal.