India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has hit a key milestone for its giant KG-DWN-98/2 deep-water development in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin offshore India’s east- coast.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi cheered the development at the inauguration ceremony on Saturday as the onshore facilities of the U deepwater field commenced gas production from the huge offshore block.
Significantly, the U Field is the deepest gas discovery of the Cluster-2 development with gas output potential of about 3 million cubic metres per day (MMcmd) in Block KG-DWN-98/2, reported state-backed ONGC.
“The first well of U field — U-3-B is one of the fastest deep-water wells monetised globally in a record time of 11 months,” ONGC said in a statement.
The gas from these wells is evacuated through the subsea facilities connected to an Onshore Terminal at Odalarevu situated in the district of Andhra Pradesh, added ONGC.
Moreover, the subsea structures for the project are being fabricated for the first time domestically at the Katupalli yard in Chennai, “a capability which proved a boon for development of domestic E&P ecosystem with extensive skill development,” said ONGC.
“U field monetisation involves a CAPEX of 29.17 billion Indian rupees ($362 million), and employment generation of 3.4 million man-hours. Gas produced from this project will add significant volumes to ONGC’s production and will be a giant leap towards making India a Gas-based Economy and Energy Security,” added ONGC.
In March, US engineering giant McDermott said it had delivered the first ever pipe-in-pipe flowline for production in India as part of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC)’s KG-DWN 98/2 project. Significantly, the development is the largest and one of the most complex subsea projects in Asia Pacific, involving major subsea infrastructure installation in ultra-deepwater.
McDermott is delivering two gas systems for ONGC’s gas fields U Field and R Field. The project is being executed in a consortium, with Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering (L&T HE) manufacturing the structures in India.
India’s upstream output has been in decline, but new production from the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off India’s east coast is expected to increase following investment by BP and Reliance Industries, as well as ONGC.