ONGC scripts turnaround, plans to ramp up oil output by 23 pc

After scripting a turnaround at its mainstay western offshore fields, state-run ONGC plans to ramp up oil output by 23 per cent to 28-29 million tonnes by 2019/20 as it brings newer fields into production.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which has been under scrutiny of the Petroleum Ministry for falling output in past years, had in 2013-14 produced 22.24 million tonnes of crude oil from its fields. This year it is targeting 23.51 million tonnes.

"We are almost on track to meeting this year targets. Till September, 94 per cent of the targeted daily output was achieved," ONGC Chairman Dinesh K Sarraf told PTI here.
Next fiscal, the production is projected to rise to 24 million tonnes and will reach 28-29 million tonnes by 2019-20.

Natural gas production, which was 23.2 billion cubic metres (63.5 million cubic metres per day) in 2013-14, will touch 24 bcm this year and 90-100 bcm in 2019-20, he said.

ONGC Director (Offshore) Tapas Kumar Sengupta said the company has this year successfully reversed the flagging output at its western offshore fields as it strategically struck 'low-hanging fruits'. This included completing three sub-sea wells at the Mumbai High field and using innovative technology to produce more oil B-193 satellite and D1 or NBP fields, he said.

"In April, western offshore produced 285,642 barrels of oil per day. This month it produced 311,360 bpd, the highest in five years," he said.

While Mumbai High field and Neelam-Heera fields have been almost flat at 206,000 bpd, Bassein Satellite fields have seen output rise from 30,700 bpd to about 53,000 bpd.
"Last year, our oil production from offshore fields was 15.541 million tonnes. This year we are targeting 16.915 million tonnes," he said.

ONGC will use a floating production system to ramp up output from the Cluster-7 fields by 50 per cent to 12,000 bpd.

Also, another 10,000 bpd is expected from D1 while improved oil recovery and enhanced oil recovery drilling at Mumbai High and Heera fields will help arrest the natural decline that has set in these ageing fields. WO-16 and B-127 fields also will add 15,000 bpd of production.

"The big push will come when we start producing oil from a very significant discovery in the KG-D5 block," he said, adding that oil production will start from the discovery in 2019 and quickly reach peak of 4.5 million tonnes.

KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) is predominantly a gas rich block and sits next to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 in Bay of Bengal.

"I can tell you very emphatically that the picture is not as bleak as it is being projected. We will see production increasing going forward," he said.

On gas, ONGC's C-26 cluster project off the Mumbai coast will begin giving 203 mmscmd from 2015-16 while Daman/C-Series fields in western offshore will start producing 2 mmscmd in 2016-17 and go up to 8.5 mmscmd by 2019, he said.

A substantial 20 mmscmd of gas will come from KG-D6 by 2018-19, he said, adding that discoveries in Kutch fields will give 2 mmscmd by 2021-22.