Big plans

New Delhi, Feb. 4: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will invest Rs 2,853 crore on a new processing platform in Mumbai High North (MHN). This will be at the same spot as the old platform that was gutted in a major fire in July 2005.

A senior ONGC official told The Telegraph, “A floating platform to produce oil and gas that was hired from a Norwegian company as a substitute did not work out. The company has, therefore, decided to install a permanent platform at the same location as the earlier one.”

The company will also invest another Rs 740 crore to facilitate offshore grid interconnectivity at all Mumbai High platforms and install electrical submersible pumps in 81 wells as part of a new technology to boost oil and gas production from the ageing fields. The western offshore contributes around 71 per cent of the total oil and gas produced by ONGC.

The construction of the new MHN platform is expected to be completed in 40 months. A major fire, sparked by a ship ramming into the platform in turbulent weather, had destroyed the old process platform, disrupting oil production from the entire Mumbai High North field and also part of the South field.

“To realise the full production potential of the Mumbai High North field, including re-development projects currently under execution and future prospects, the company has decided to construct a new process complex at the same location,” an official said.

The new process complex will have facilities to handle around 48,000 barrels of oil per day and 6.8 MMSCMD (million metric standard cubic metre per day) of gas.

The MHN complex will consist of a process-cum-riser platform, a living quarters platform, a sub-sea connected flare structure, sub-sea pipelines and associated topside modifications, including facilities to handle sour gas from B-series marginal fields that are being developed at an investment of Rs 2,323 crore.

ONGC has ventured into the next phase of development of marginal fields near major process complexes. It will develop the B-22 marginal fields located west of the South Bassein gas field.