ONGC begins ‘first oil production’ from deep-water block in Krishna-Godavari basin

ONGC commencing its first oil production from the deep-water KG-DWN 98/2 block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off the Bay of Bengal on the Kakinada coast on January 7.

KAKINADA

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) commenced its ‘first oil production’ from the deep-water KG-DWN 98/2 Block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off the Bay of Bengal on the Kakinada coast on January 7.

The block is approximately 25 km from the coastline. The peak production of the 98/2 field is expected to be around 45,000 barrels of oil per day and over 10 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per Day (MMSCMD) of gas.

Executive Director and Asset Manager (ONGC-Kakinada) Ratnesh Kumar has said; “The 98/2 block is likely to help increase the ONGC’s total oil production by 11% and natural gas production by 15%.”

In 2020, the ONGC embarked on an exercise to kick-start oil production by deploying respective technologies on the site. The waxy nature of the crude oil posed many technical challenges and all of them were addressed by adopting Pipe-In-Pipe technology.

“Subsea hardware has been sourced from abroad to meet specific technical requirements. A majority of the fabrication work has been carried out at Modular Fabrication Facility at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu as part of the Make in India initiative,” the ONGC said.

“In the final phase of the 98/2 block project, efforts are in progress to begin the production of the balance oil and natural gas by mid-2024,” it said.