NEW DELHI: State-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) plans to increase output at its Vashishta gas field, located in KG basin, from 1.1 million standard cubic meters per day (msmcd) currently to 5 msmcd by July this year.
ONGC is currently developing Vashishta and S1 gas fields in KG basin under a deep-water development project with an investment of $751.65 million. Exploration and production in these difficult deep-water fields started in September 2016.
The Vashishta field lies at 500-700 meters under the sea around 35 km off Andhra Pradesh’s Amalapuram coast. Vashishta is a free gas field with estimated reserves of 12.92 billion cubic metres (bcm). It is estimated to produce 9.56 billion cubic metres over a period of nine years.
Similarly, the S1 field is located undersea between 250 and 600 meters. It is expected to deliver an output of 6.22 bcm over a period of eight years.
According to a company official, as part of the Vashishta and S1 field development, ONGC is drilling four wells and shipping the gas from them through a sub-sea pipeline to an onshore terminal at Odalarevu in Andhra Pradesh.
The official added that Vashishta is the first field in the country to get the premium price of gas. In March last year, the government had allowed higher price for new gas production from difficulties areas like the deep sea, ultra-deepwater and high-pressure, high-temperature areas. According to the official, when ONGC started production, premium price was $6.61 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) against a cap price of $3.06 per mBtu for regular fields.