January 1, 2018
The discovery of the well WO-24-3 (WO-24-C) was announced by Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas in a written reply to a question in the Parliament
The drilling has identified nine deposits and on testing all the zones flowed oil and gas. The multi-layered oil and gas accumulation has opened up new area for upstream activities
The discovery is crucial as the Indian Government is focusing on cutting oil and gas imports by increasing domestic exploration and production, as a mean to reduce expenses
ONGC is looking to further augment deposits in Mumbai High region as it plans to increase its crude oil production from 25.5 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 28-29 million tonnes by 2019-20
Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) has found a significant new oil deposit in the Arabian Sea.The Indian Government-run company said that the discovery, to the west of its Mumbai High Field, is estimated to hold in-place hydrocarbons reserve of about 30 million tonnes of oil equivalent.The discovery of the well WO-24-3 (WO-24-C) was announced by Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas on January 1st 2018, in a written reply to a question in the Parliament. Mr Pradhan said that the drilling identified nine deposits and on testing all the zones flowed oil and gas.
The announcement added that the ninth zone on testing flowed oil at the rate of 3,310 barrels per day and natural gas at the rate 17,071 cu meter per day. This multi-layered oil and gas accumulation in this well has opened up new area for exploration and development. Mumbai High is India’s biggest oilfield. Output from the deposit as well as that from oilfields on India’s eastern coast such as the Krishna Godavari Basin will aid ONGC’s future production growth. This is crucial as the Indian Government has focused on cutting oil and gas imports by increasing domestic exploration and production.
The new asset will begin production in less than two years and is expected to gain from the presence of existing infrastructure at the nearby field WO-16. Mumbai High and other small fields on the western coast produce 16 million tonnes of crude oil annually, or around 44 per cent of India’s total. ONGC is looking to further augment deposits in the region. The company plans to increase its oil production by 14% to 29 million tonnes by 2020. Encouraged by improved technologies and rising demand, the contribution of offshore oil and gas has steadily increased in India’s total hydrocarbons output.