The state-run energy major Oil and
Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to start crude oil production, and further on,
gas production in 2024, from its most promising block in the Krishna Godavari
(KG) basin in the Bay of Bengal. The company attributed narrowing and supply
chain issues due to the pandemic to shifting the start of oil production first
to November 2021, then to quarter of 2022 and now May 2023.
According to the company's director
Pankaj Kumar, an oil production facility known as an FPSO is already operating
in Indian seas. Currently, 1.7 million standard cubic metres of natural gas per
day are being produced by the block. In 1-2 months, the business will begin
producing 10,000 to 12,000 barrels per day, peaking at 45,000 bpd.
In April 2018, at the time of its
launch, ONGC said the estimated capital expenditure would be USD 5.07 billion
and operational expenditure would be USD 5.12 billion over a field life of 16
years.
The KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 block of ONGC,
which is located in the KG basin close to the KG-D6 block of Reliance
Industries, has seen a number of discoveries. It lies adjacent to the Godavari
River's delta bank in the Bay of Bengal. It is located 35 kilometres off the
coast of Andhra Pradesh in a sea that ranges in depth from 300 to 2,200 metres.
The block's discoveries are broken down
into three clusters, Clusters 1, 2, and 3. Production is starting with Cluster
2.
In the initial investment decision, it
was estimated that the Cluster 2 field's two blocks, 2A and 2B, would together
provide a total of 50.70 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas and 23.52 million
metric tonnes of oil over the length of the field's lifetime.
The estimated reserves for Clusters 2A
and 2B are 94.26 million tonnes of crude oil and 21.75 billion cubic metres of
associated gas, respectively.
Over a 15-year period, Cluster 2A was
expected to generate 3.81 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd)
of associated gas per day and 77,305 barrels of oil per day (bopd) of related
oil. With a 16-year life, Cluster 2B is anticipated to generate 12.75 mmscmd of
free gas from eight wells.
However, the estimated output has
decreased to 45,000 bpd of oil, up to 2 mmscmd from cluster 2A, and 7-8 mmscmd
from cluster 2B.