New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural GasCorp (ONGC) is targeting mid-2018 for start of natural gas production from its Krishna Godavari basin KG-D5 block, said Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. ONGC is using cluster approach to bring oil and gas finds in the block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5, which sits next to Reliance Industries' Bay of Bengal block KG-D6, to production by 2018-19, he told Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question.
"The block (KG-D5) is divided into the Northern Discovery Area (NDA) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA). Estimated reserves of NDA are 121 million tons of oil inplace and 78 billion cubic meter of initial gas in place and that of SDA are 80.9 bcm of intial gas in place," he said. ONGC plans to develop the discoveries in the block in three clusters -- 14.5 million standard cubic meters per day of gas for 15 years from Cluster-1 comprising of D&E finds of NDA in KG-D5 block and G-4 find in the a neighbouring area.
Cluster-2A mainly comprises of oil finds in NDA. "It is envisaged to drill 14 oil wells and 10 water injectors in this cluster and is expected to produce approx. 31.5 million tons of oil in 15 years with peak production rate of 91,000 barrels of oil per day," he said. Cluster 2B, which is made up of four gas finds in NDA, envisages to produce peak production rate of 12.5 mmscmd, with cumulative production of 32.5 bcm of gas in 14 years.
"Efforts to achieve first gas by mid-2018 and first oil by mid-2019 from above clusters are ongoing. Parallel execution of number of project activities are in progress to ensure fast track development of these fields," he said. Pradhan said exercise to identify associated risks and appropriate mitigation measures are also being planned. Cluster-3 is the UD-1 gas discovery in SDA.
"Considering the water depth (2400-3200 meters) and the constrained techno-economic solutions, execution of this Cluster-3 is presently not being pursued for development. Scouting for suitable technology/solution for field development is in progress," he said. ONGC and RIL won KG-D5 and KG-D6 block in the first round of auction under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in 2000. RIL began production from the oil discovery in KG-D6 in September 2008 and put gas find on production in April 2009.
