HOEC to produce oil from Mumbai field by 2021, invest $43 million

New Delhi: Hindustan Oil Exploration Co. Ltd (HOEC) has submitted a $43 million development plan to bring to production the Mumbai offshore oil field it had won in the first discovered field auction in March. HOEC is the first company out of the 31 that signed contracts for the fields won in the auction in March, to have submitted a field development plan (FDP).

“We have submitted to the directorate general of hydrocarbon (DGH) an FDP for B-80 block that envisages production of 5,000 barrels of oil and 15 million standard cubic feet per day of gas by 2020-21,” HOEC chief executive officer (CEO) P. Elango told PTI.

The B-80 block, which lies in the vicinity of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) giant oil and gas fields in Mumbai offshore, is estimated to hold reserves of 40 million barrels of oil and 26 billion cubic feet of gas.

Elango said the plan envisages drilling two new offshore wells and installing a mobile offshore process unit (MOPU). The processed oil and gas will be transported by connecting to nearby oil and gas pipelines of ONGC for delivery to customers at an estimated capital investment of about $43 million over 30 months, he said.

“For HOEC, this foray into iconic Mumbai offshore area on the west coast will open up an exciting new phase and will build on its experience to enhance our core competence as a low cost and fast-track developer of oil and gas fields,” he said.

Besides B-80, HOEC is focused on raising natural gas output from its Assam fields, where commercial production started recently. HOEC sells 10 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas from the Dirok field in Tinsukia district of Assam to Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd.

The output is planned to be raised to 36mmscfd or 1 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) by April 2018, he said. Production from Dirok will be over 12% of total gas production in Assam. About 8mmscmd of gas is produced in Assam currently.

Also, it is working on reviving production from PY-1 oilfield in Tamil Nadu by drilling two wells that would raise the output to 10mmscfd, from 2.5mmscfd, he added.