ONGC field shuts oil wells following damage to gas lines

The Indian Express
Jan 18, 2018 

At a time when every drop of crude oil counts, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has run into a production loss. Neelam, its third-biggest oil field off west coast after Mumbai High, was forced to shut down oil wells after an L&T-owned barge ripped two gas lines and dragged two gas lift lines 60 metres away.

Papers with The Indian Express show that 28 wells are shut since January 2 after L&T Sapura Shipping’s offshore vessel LTS 3000 damaged the four pipelines while handling the anchor during the laying of a 12-inch pipeline from NLG Process platform to wellhead platform NLM 13.

“This has resulted in damage to gas lift lines and consequently, disruption of production. Our preliminary survey indicates damage to LTR1, LTR3, 4 inch gas lift lines to NLM-6 and NLM-7; 8 inch gas lift line to NLM-8 during anchor handling,” says the ONGC report.

“The shutdown initially resulted in production loss of 1,558 barrels of crude but soon climbed to a daily loss 3,618 as four wellhead platforms were shut down to avoid gas leakage,” said an ONGC official. That’s 55,800 barrels of oil at the time of filing the news report when a barrel fetched $68 — roughly amounting $3.8 million.

And there is no word on when the full production from Neelam could resume as the repair is hampered by the non-supply of the required gripper assemblies by the project contractor L&T Heavy Engineering. Sources said that these grippers would be “borrowed” from ONGC to start the repair of the 8 inch gas lift pipeline.

The repair work has been assigned to IGOPL Offshore which has deployed offshore supply ship Seamec Princess. “The best case scenario informed by IGOPL Offshore is that full production could start by the month-end,” said the ONGC official.

Offshore service by vendors has become a big bane for ONGC which last Saturday lost five officers when a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea. ONGC officials said the company has begun reviewing offshore logistics to make them “more safe and secure”.

ONGC invested Rs 5,700 crore to increase the production from Neelam-Heera offshore oil field near Mumbai High from 2009 by raising its capacity to 4,000 barrels per day from 1,500. Last March, it awarded a Rs 1,656-crore contract to L&T Heavy Engineering to enhance oil and gas recovery from the field. The incremental gain is pegged at 2.76 million tonnes of crude oil and 4.786 billion cubic metres of natural gas until 2034-35.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more