State-run oil and gas major ONGC has pinned high hopes on its Daman project that is poised to become one of its prolific gas producing fields and also a low-cost one. The project in Mumbai offshore comprises a cluster of four fields ? C-24 and B-12 (11/13/15). Together, these fields are capable of producing about 10 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas (ONGC?s current gas output is 60 mmscmd) and are expected to commence production by August 2016.
?Several small and marginal fields were discovered in the Tapti-Daman block (that comprises the cluster fields mentioned above) over a period of time and these are being developed by ONGC and other operators. The Daman development project will be the largest of this,? Tapas Kumar Sengupta, director (offshore) at ONGC told FE.
The Daman project, where ONGC would spend
R 5,219 crore, would be viable at a natural gas price of about $5-5.40/million British thermal units (mmBtu).
ONGC?s decision to focus on relatively small and geologically less difficult fields like Daman is in view of potentially bigger assets like the KG DWN-98/2 block taking longer than expected to come on stream.
Currently, about 25 mmscmd of ONGC?s gas output comes from the Bassein field which has been in production since 1988, in the Arabian Sea. Projects such as Daman would add up to incremental production for the firm and also make up for the falling hydrocarbon production from decades-old mature fields.
The PSU has taken up cluster development of projects to make small discoveries economically viable. The Daman project has gas reserves of about 35-36 billion cubic metres (bcm). Of this, 60-70% of natural gas is recoverable.
At the same time, the project is also expected to produce about 9,286 barrels per day (bpd) of rich condensate that is used to produce value-added products such as naphtha, diesel and kerosene.
?The stage-gate project management system has been introduced by ONGC to monitor high-value projects like Daman,? said Sengupta. This means the project would be closely monitored at the company director?s level to prevent any delays and remain focused to be commissioned as per schedule.
The expenditure on Daman project would be spread equally between the drilling programme and setting up of facilities. ONGC would set up seven well-head platforms and one riser platform with associated pipelines and drilling of about 28 wells. This is a shallow-water project.
Interestingly, ONGC would also save some cost as it proposes to utilise the existing facility at Hazira set up by the Tapti joint venture with Cairn and BG for evacuating gas and condensate from Daman.
?In future, there are two more adjacent areas to Daman ? GK-28/42 and MB-OSN/2005/1 ? where significant discoveries have been made by ONGC. These acreages could also be put under production through cluster development in the near future, which would make the northern area of Bassein one of the largest gas producing area in the country,? Sengupta added.
ONGC is aggressively working towards producing more hydrocarbon from the western offshore region. The Maharatna?s board has also recently given the go-ahead for the third phase of the Mumbai High North redevelopment project at a cost of Rs 5,813 crore, which will add around 7 million tonnes of crude oil in the next 15 years.
