ONGC submits draft field development plan for KG discoveries

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has submitted to oil regulator DGH a draft field development plan (FDP) for beginning oil and gas production from its KG-basin D5 block by 2018-19. ONGC board earlier this month approved submission of the draft FDP for one set of oil and gas discoveries made in the eastern offshore Block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5, which sits next to Reliance Industries’ flagging KG-D6 area.[caption id=“attachment_2118999” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The ONGC logo. [/caption] “We are looking at producing 77,000 barrels per day of oil and 14 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from the first set of discoveries by 2018-19,” a senior company official said. The 7,294.6 sq km deepsea KG-D5 block has been broadly categorised into Northern Discovery Area (NDA - 3,800.6 sq km) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA - 3,494 sq km). ONGC has divided 12 oil and gas discoveries in KG-D5 and gas discovery in an adjacent G-4 block in the Bay of Bengal into three clusters to quickly bring them to production. Cluster-1 comprises D&E discoveries as also G-4 find in the neighbouring area which ONGC estimates can produce 14.5 mmscmd of gas for 15 years. Cluster-2A mainly comprises oil finds of A2, P1, M3, M1 and G-2-2 in NDA which can produce 77,000 barrels per day (3.75 million tonnes per annum). Cluster-2B, which is made up of four gas finds – R1, U3, U1, and A1 in NDA, envisages a peak output of 14 mmscmd of gas with cumulative production of 32.5 bcm of gas in 14 years. The official said ONGC is presently focused on developing Cluster-2A and 2B and a draft FDP for these has been submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). “There are some issues regarding conformity tests for discoveries in Cluster-1. So until they are sorted out, a FDP cannot be prepared for them,” he said. The draft FDP for Cluster-2A and 2B does not detail the investment that would be required to bring the discoveries to production, he said. “There is some more technical work that needs to be done before we arrive at a number but the investment should be in the range of $6-7 billion,” he said, adding first gas production is planned by mid-2018 and first oil by mid-2019. If discoveries in Cluster-1 get approved, the total investment will climb to $8.843 billion, he said. Cluster-3 is the UD-1 gas discovery in SDA. “UD-1 lies in water depth of 2,400-3,200 meters and there is no technology to produce from such depths. And so Cluster-3 is presently not being pursued for development,” he said. While gas from the block will be evacuated to Odalarevu onshore terminal in Andhra Pradesh through 20-inch, 35.5 km sub-sea pipeline, oil is proposed to be taken on to an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) anchored in high-sea. Oil from FPSO will then be transfered to tankers for transportation to refineries. PTI