ONGC Awards Contracts for Flagship Block in the Krishna Godavari Basin

India’s ONGC has awarded contracts to Nauvata Energy Transition Enterprise (NET Enterprise) and its US consortium partner PERC Engineering for pre-FEED, FEED, and project management consulting (PMC) at two new projects in the Bay of Bengal.

NET Enterprise announced the wins on 17 April in Bangalore. The contracts cover concept studies, preparation of the tender bid package, and PMC to begin developing several deepwater projects in and near ONGC’s flagship KG-DWN-98/2 block in the Krishna Godavari basin.

Two projects are targeted in the recent contract award.

1. Integrated development of the DWN-E1 and DWN-F1 wells in Cluster-1 of the KG-DWN-98/2 block and the nearby GS29 asset.

2. Tie-in of the G-1-9 sub and G-1-15 wells to the existing G1 manifold.

These latest contracts follow ONGC’s achieving first oil from its $5-billion KG-DWN-98/2 Cluster 2 development on which NET Enterprises and its consortium partner, UK-based Consub, handled PMC for the SURF-SPS, FPSO, and onshore scopes of work.

India’s Oil and Gas Production To Turn Positive and Stay Positive

KG-DWN-98/2 production from Cluster 2 is projected to plateau at 10 million std m³/d of gas and 40,000 B/D by 2026. It will sustain that level for 2 more years, ONGC’s Chief of Corporate Planning Pavan Agarwal told reporters during the company’s Q3/FY24 earnings call on 12 February.

By FY28 however, “other infill wells will be coming up” and together with Cluster-1 production “will make up for the early decline,” he told analysts. ONGC also expects its Daman Upside shallow-water project offshore India’s west coast to be contributing 1.5 billion m³ of gas by 2027.

Overall, India expects a yearly 5 to 6% increase in oil and gas production building up to an overall 15% uptick by 2027, Agarwal said.

ONGC’s East Coast Flagship Projects Rank High in Engineering Challenges

ONGC’s KG-DWN-98/2 is considered one of the most complex deepwater projects in the world. At the 2023 Offshore Technology Conference Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, ONGC authors presented OTC 32841 detailing the digital systems being created for reservoir, production, and asset information to be joined with collaborative management to create a digital twin and optimize operations.

The authors said that production can only be optimized by continuous monitoring, citing challenges such as high-pressure/high-temperature downhole conditions and the high wax content of the crude itself which challenges flow assurance and leads to a shorter "No Touch Time” that causes hydrates to form and wax to deposit within hours of shutdown.

Another paper, ISOPE-I-21-1115, presented at the 31st International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference in Greece in June 2021, conceptualizes floating structures and riser systems suitable for surface and subsea conditions that exist off India’s east coast.

In addition to water depths exceeding 2500 m, engineers face geohazards and a harsh environment characterized by strong ocean currents and cyclonic weather that creates very large waves.