PTI
State-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has started oil production from its much-delayed flagship deep-sea project in the Krishna Godavari basin in Bay of Bengal, helping reverse years of decline in output, the company said.
ONGC has started producing from the Cluster-2 project in the KG-DWN-98/2 block and will slowly ramp up output. Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said “first oil production commences from complex and difficult” block. He did not indicate the current output but said “production is expected to be 45,000 barrels per day and over 10 million standard cubic metres per day of gas.” Cluster-2 oil production should have begun by November 2021 but was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.
ONGC has hired floating vessel Armada Sterling-V, owned 70 per cent by SPOG (Shapoorji Pallonji Oil & Gas) and 30 per cent by Malaysia’s Bumi Armada, for producing oil from below seabed.