Date:25/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/09/25/stories/2007092550030300.htm

ONGC plans Mumbai field Phase II redevelopment

May seek board nod next month; plans on to hike gas processing capacity

Project proposals
Five production platforms and one processing platform to be set up.
An additional 21 million tonnes of oil will be recovered from the field.
Total recovery factor of the asset may increase to about 34-35 per cent.

Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, Sept. 24

ONGC is planning Rs 5,700 crore second phase of redevelopment of Mumbai High South (MHS) field. The company may seek board approval for the project during its next meeting in October. The project envisages increase in recovery from the field to arrest the declining trend and increase the total production.

Plans are also afoot to enhance the capacities of its gas processing plants at Hazira in Gujarat and Uran in Maharashtra by five to six million standard cubic metre a day (mmscmd) each. While the project details are still under preparation, the expansion may cost ONGC approximately Rs 1,600 crore.

According to sources, ONGC plans to set up five production platforms and one processing platform in the second phase re-development. The project is expected to be completed in 2010-11.

“The redevelopment of MHS will lead to recovery of an additional 21 million tonnes of oil from the field between 2011 and 2030. The total recovery factor of the asset may increase to approximately 34-35 per cent,” a company official told Business Line.

The 25-year-old field is currently producing in the range of 1.6 lakh barrels of oil a day. Production is declining at the rate of seven to eight per cent a year.

Phase I details

ONGC completed the Rs 6,500-crore first phase of redevelopment of MHS in May 2007.

The project included installation of 10 new well platforms, laying of new pipelines and upgrading of existing facilities besides drilling of 140 new wells.

On the proposed enhancement of the gas processing capacities, the official said, “ONGC has already taken up a project to develop 28 marginal fields in Western offshore leading to an additional production of 15 mmscmd of gas and six million tonnes of associated oil in next three years. To accommodate this increased production, we are planning to set up two more trains at Hazira and Uran.”

The company may take another three months to finalise the project.

ONGC currently processes over 52 mmscmd of gas produced from Western offshore fields at Hazira and Uran. Of the two, Hazira plant processes over 40 mmscmd of gas.