Eleven companies, including international giants, have evinced interest in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC’s) process of evolving an exploration model for its Ahmedabad Asset oil fields. The state-run explorer intends to avail technical expertise of global companies for the purpose.
The companies in the race include Schlumberger, Energy Petroleum, Halliburton, Weatherford and Baker Hughes, Oilex-GSPC, Hamex Oilfield Services, Petrogas, Centrum and Trisun Energy.
“We have approached the board to take a final call on the matter. This is the first such model being evolved by any company in India. Eleven companies have filed their EoIs (expression of interests),” said Anil Johri, executive director of ONGC’s Ahmedabad Asset
In May, ONGC’s Ahmedabad Asset had invited EoIs from companies for providing end-to-end solution for seven of its fields — Kalol, Wasna, Nawagam, Limbodra, Wamaj, Nandej and Sadra.
According to top company officials, as many as 15 companies had showed interest, and 11 of have submitted EoIs.
Explaining the benefits of the model to the company, Johri said, “The rationale behind opting for this model is that these companies would bring in the latest technology in exploration activity and will be helpful to reduce cost burden for the ONGC. They will set up the exploration unit and operate them for some time before ONGC takes it over. This will be done purely on the basis of ‘risk-reward’ method. If they succeed in improving the output, it will bring a substantial rise to the production of hydrocarbons for the company.”
ONGC has seven onshore assets across the country and the Ahmedabad Asset, operational since April 1961, is one of them. Spread across four districts of Gujarat in an area of more than 6,200 sq km, the Ahmedabad Asset has 22 fields, with more than 1,200 wells on production. The production is being obtained through 63 installations.
“Things are getting costly for the company. Therefore, we need latest technologies to be employed to get oil with lower cost involvement,” said Johri.
With more than 87 per cent of the flowing wells in Ahmedabad Asset operating on artificial lift and more set to join the league, the cost of production is likely to go up. Most fields are having multi-layered and heterogeneous reservoirs, posing subsurface challenges also. The Ahmedabad Asset has so far produced another 46.44 million tonnes oil, while it is estimated to have 47 million tonnes reserves. “Currently, we are producing more than 4,600 tonnes per day, while we aim to raise it to 5,000 tonnes per day in the next year,” Johri said.
