(HT)
A joint venture of Shell, Reliance Industries Ltd and ONGC has successfully completed India’s first offshore facilities decommissioning project with the safe removal of installations on the mid and south Tapti gas field in the Arabian Sea, the firms said on Monday.
Once a field stops producing oil and gas, the facilities that were erected to bring out hydrocarbons from below ground or under seabed, have to be safely removed – a process called decommissioning.
The Tapti field, lying 160 km north-west of Mumbai, stopped producing in 2016. Certain facilities at the mid and south Tapti fields, known as the Tapti Part A Facilities were handed over to state-owned ONGC while the remaining facilities, which included 38 wells, 5 wellhead platforms and four pipelines, known as Tapti Part B Facilities were abandoned by the joint venture.
In 2017, the joint venture started preparing to decommission the Tapti field, where Shell owned 30% interest, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) held 40% and the remaining being with Reliance (RIL).
“In a landmark achievement for India’s energy sector, the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) joint venture partners – Shell (through BGEPIL), RIL, and ONGC have successfully completed the country’s first offshore facilities decommissioning project with the safe removal of mid and south Tapti field facilities,” the firms said in a statement.
The companies said, “The project involved removal of five wellhead platforms, associated infield pipelines, load-in at the onshore dismantling yard and the safe plugging and abandonment of 38 wells – all executed in line with the approved decommissioning plan”.
Production from the Tapti fields ceased in March 2016, and “this project demonstrates a high level of planning, coordination, and compliance with regulatory frameworks while upholding the highest safety and environmental standards”, the statement said.
The PMT JV awarded major contracts to Indian companies Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for offshore execution and Chowgule Shipyard (CLSPL) for onshore dismantling.
“Offshore operations have now been completed safely, and dismantling is underway at CLSPL’s facilities in Ratnagiri, further strengthening India’s domestic capabilities in offshore and onshore energy infrastructure,” the statement said.
The Tapti decommissioning project also played a pioneering role in shaping India’s regulatory and operational framework for offshore decommissioning.
