Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) expects peak production from its deepwater block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin by the end of 2024, Pankaj Kumar, director (production), told Moneycontrol. The company in January had set a peak production target deadline of mid-2024.
State-run ONGC aims to reverse years of declining production by FY25 and is eyeing new output from the KG Basin to gradually raise output.
ONGC’s KG block is expected to reach peak production of 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 10 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas. This would boost ONGC’s overall oil production by 11 percent and that of gas by 15 percent. India’s largest oil and gas explorer commenced oil production from the deepwater field in January 2024, after several delays.
Kumar said installation activities at the two oilfields in the KG Basin are set to be complete by early May. Subsequent to the completion of installation activities at the respective oilfields, ONGC would be able to reach peak production in its flagship KG- 98/2 block lying off the east coast.
“Currently, the construction activities are in full pace in the east coast. The platform modules are under installation. A few days ago, a significant milestone has been achieved by installation of the central processing platform which was to be installed through a technique called float over. We expect that these installation activities in the KG Basin will be over by the end of April or first week of May, followed by hook-up and commissioning,” said Kumar.
India’s largest oil and gas explorer had earlier significantly reduced the peak production estimate from its KG deepwater field from 78,000 barrels of oil per day and 15.57 mmscmd of gas stated in 2017.
“We expect that by September-October we will be able to completely commission everything and ramp up the production. Target peak production from the block is expected to reach by the end of 2024,” Kumar added.
He said that ONGC is currently producing from only one oilfield in the KG Basin and was now moving towards commencing production from the other two oilfields it had won in auctions held by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.
“In ONGC’s KG Basin, we are currently producing from one oilfield of the Development Project- KG-DWN-98/2 Cluster-II. We still have two more oilfields and free gas fields in the cluster, which are to be monetised,” said Kumar.
Oil shipment from KG Basin
The head of ONGC’s production activities said the second oil cargo from KG Basin would, like the first cargo, go to its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL). The first oil cargo was supplied on March 9.
“The first parcel of crude oil from KG Basin has already been sent to MRPL. The second parcel is almost ready and will be dispatched to MRPL in the first week of April,” said Kumar.
The official added that the company expects “no negative variation” in peak production levels from the respective block this time as output from existing wells is on a par with ONGC’s estimates.
“As of now, we do not see any negative variation because the wells from which we are producing have met expectations. We expect that we will be able to produce what we were targeting,” said Kumar.
In 2024-25, Kumar said ONGC expects to arrest the decline in its overall production and targets to produce around 45 million tonnes of oil or oil equivalent. “For FY25, with the ongoing and upcoming activities, we are targeting production of around 45 million tonnes oil equivalent,” said Kumar.
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