India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has announced the successful start of oil production from the deep-water KG-DWN-98/2 Block, located off the coast of Bay of Bengal.
ONGC had successfully executed Phase 1 of the project in March 2020, achieving the start of gas production from U field of the KG-DWN-98/2 Block in record time of 10 months.
With the first oil achieved on January 7, 2024, ONGC is nearing completion of Phase 2, culminating into commencement of oil production from the ‘M’ field of KG-DWN-98/2.
Employed on the field is Shapoorji Pallonji Energy's (SP Energy) FPSO Armada Sterling V. The FPSO has processing capacity of about 60,000 bpd of liquid and 3 MMSCMD of gas.
It is owned by SP Energy’s 70:30 joint venture with Malaysia’s Bumi Armada.
The 98/2 project is likely to increase ONGC’s total oil and gas production by 11% and 15% respectively, India’s oil and gas major said.
The flagship project is on track with the final phase of the block scheduled to be put on production by mid-2024.
Peak production of field is expected to be 45,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and over 10 MMSCMD of gas, according to ONGC.