ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), expects output at its deep-sea project in Brazil to rapidly rise to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the year-end and offset the natural declines that have set in its Russian and Sudan projects.
"Currently, oil is being produced from just one well and output is about 5,500 bpd. It will rise to 40,000 bpd by year end, when five more wells will be brought into production," OVL Managing Director R S Butola told reporters here.
OVL, which has nine producing properties in seven countries, produced 120,000-130,000 bpd (6.5 million tonnes) in 2008-09. This fiscal the output is to fall to 5.8 million tonnes (MT) on declines that have set in Sakhalin-1 project in Russia and Greater Nile project in Sudan.
Sakhalin-1, where OVL has 20 per cent stake, is producing about 160,000 bpd, down from peak of 250,000 bpd achieved in 2007 and the output is slated to further fall to about 100,000 bpd by 2011. In Sudan, output has fallen to 175,000 bpd.
OVL, Shell and Petrobras of Brazil started production on July 12 at its multi-field Parque das Conchas project, also known as BC-10, 120 km off Brazil's southeast coast. Output will be quickly ramped up to 100,000 bpd or 5MT a year shortly.
Shell is the operator of the project with 50 per cent stake while Brazil's state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has 35 per cent interest. OVL has 15 per cent.
MD Butola said OVL's San Cristobal project in Venezuela was producing about 32,000 bpd (1.6 MT a year) and output is likely to go up to 40,000 bpd shortly.
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Output from San Cristobal had fallen to 20,000 bpd last year as Venezuela, a member of the oil cartel OPEC, enforced production cuts to arrest falling global crude prices.
OVL has 40 per cent interest in San Cristobal while the remaining is with Venezuela's state-run PdVSA.
He added output from Sakhalin-1 project will increase in late 2011 or early 2012 when new fields are brought into production.
The Sakhalin-1 Project in Russia's far east, includes three offshore fields — Chayvo, Odoptu, and Arkutun Dagi. ExxonMobil is the operator with 30 per cent stake while a Japanese consortium has 30 per cent. Russian state-run Rosneft has 20 per cent.
The future phases of the project involve development of the Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi fields.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director and OVL Chairman R S Sharma said OVL saw net profit rise to Rs 2,807 crore in 2008 -09 from Rs 2,397 crore in the previous year. Turnover rise to Rs 18,144 crore from Rs 16,741 crore in 2007-08.