ONGC's D1 field kicks off oil production

NEW DELHI: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)'s marginal field D-1, 200 km south-west Mumbai, has started oil production.

The first cargo of 57,337 tonne of crude oil from the marginal field was despatched to Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), the subsidiary refinery of ONGC.

ONGC had initiated aggressive measures for bringing its marginal fields to production. The D1 field has a resource estimate of 19 million tonne of in-place oil. The field has the potential to yield over 4.57 mt of oil. With a marginal base price of $50 a barrel, the produce is worth over Rs 7,500 crore.

The government had, earlier, offered the D1 field for divestment in the first bidding round itself. However, the low price regime, along with the marginal nature of the field - resulted in few takers showing interest.

ONGC could not take up development of the field due to the unfavourable techno-economics. ONGC evolved a phase-wise exploitation plan with water-injection, and integrated schemes to make the project feasible.

Currently, the field has two producing wells. The present average rate of oil production from D-1 field is over 7000 barrels of oil per day. The third well is under drilling and likely to add further to the existing rate of oil production.