ONGC had floated a tender to charter hire two deepwater drilling rigs and one anchor moored rig for bringing gas in Bay of Bengal block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5, which sits next to Reliance Industries' flagging KG-D6 fields, to production.
"We have received tremendous response to the tender. International drilling contractors have bid very aggressively," an official said.
ONGC is among the very few explorers around the world who are actually going ahead with the development campaign despite low oil prices. "And naturally, contractors have no new job outside and so they are queueing up here," he said.
Other bidders include Seadrill Orion Ltd, Drillship Kythnos Owners Inc, Dupont Maritime LLC, Dynamic Drilling & Services, Ensco Maritime Ltd, Queiroz Galvano Leo Gas, Seadrill Orion, Universial Energy Resources Ind, Vantage International management Co and Japan Drilling Co.
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ONGC is investing USD 5.07 billion for developing Cluster-II discoveries in KG-D5 block to flow natural gas from from June 2019 and oil by March 2020.
The 7,294.6-sq-km deepsea KG-D5 block has been broadly categorised into Northern Discovery Area (NDA - 3,800.6 sq km) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA - 3,494 sq km).
Gas discovery in Cluster-I is to be tied up with finds in neighbouring G-4 block for production but this is not being taken up currently because of a dispute with RIL over migration of gas from ONGC blocks, the official said.
From Cluster-II, a peak oil output of 77,305 barrels per day is envisaged within two years of start of production. Gas output is slated to peak to 16.56 million standard cubic meters per day by end-2021.
Cluster-2B, which is made up of four gas finds - R1, U3, U1, and A1 in NDA - envisages a peak output of 12.75 mmscmd of gas, the official said, adding that peak output is likely to last 7 years.
Cluster-III is the UD-1 gas discovery in SDA in ultra- deepsea that poses technological challenges.