Rigzone.com ONGC to Cut Gas Production in Arabian Sea Due to Pipeline Repair Work
India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC) planned to temporarily reduce production from the firm’s largest gas fields in the Arabian Sea by around two-fifths due to repair work on an offshore pipeline that transport the gas to shore, local daily The Economic Times reported Friday. ONGC would undertake repairs to a 42-inch pipeline that carries natural gas from the Bassein field to the port of Hazira in Gujarat from July 7 to 27. “The repair work was to last 24 days but we have squeezed it in less than three week … to tentatively start from July 7 but could be pushed back to July 8 or 9,” a top company official said, as quoted by The Economic Times. The pipeline repair would lead to production stoppage at some gas wells and output is expected to fall “459-494 million standard cubic feet (13-14 million standard cubic meters) per day during the shutdown period,” he added. ONGC currently produces 1.1653 billion standard cubic feet (33 million standard cubic meters) per day of natural gas from the Bassein field in India’s Western Offshore, with the gas shipped to shore via two subsea pipelines, comprising a 42-inch line and a 32-inch line. Meanwhile, the company official told The Economic Times that the smaller 32-inch line will continue to operate, while some gas would be diverted to an alternate pipeline that goes to Uran in Maharashtra. Local state gas utility GAIL India Ltd., which sells gas produced from the ONGC fields to the customers, has been informed of the pipeline shutdown. In late May, the Indian oil and gas firm announced plans for additional development at the South Bassein field, with a new process platform BCPA-3 to be installed to raise gas production by 664.90 billion cubic feet (18.83 billion cubic meters) by 2030-31. The project, now under development and targeted for completion by April 2017, will cost ONGC $720.72 million (INR 46.20 billion).
