Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBIA, Aug. 30 -- India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. has restored 60% of the production at Mumbai High North (MHN) oil and gas field and hopes to reach "near-normal" production by the second quarter 2006, ONGC Chairman Subir Raha said.
The MHN processing platform and a multipurpose support vessel were destroyed in a July 27 fire that erupted when the support vessel hit the platform in the Arabian Sea, killing 11 workers (OGJ, Aug. 8, 2005, Newsletter).
"We have reached a production of 213,200 b/d of crude oil and gas sales of 8.5 million standard cu m/day (MMscmd) exactly a month from the pre-July 26 level of 265,000 b/d and 10.2 MMscmd of gas," Raha said Aug. 27.
Immediately after the accident, field output fell to 145,000 b/d of oil and 6.1 MMscmd of gas, ONGC statistics show.
"We expect to recoup another 5-10% of production by December this year," Raha said, adding that the company has invited bids for the installation of a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. "If we are able to get [the FPSO] going within the next 6 months, we would expect to achieve near-normal production of 270,000 b/d of oil by March next year."
ONGC estimates that it might need to invest $138 million to rebuild the MHN processing platform and related assets.
That estimate excludes compensation from insurance companies. While the underwriters continue assessing the loss claims, company sources have estimated that insurance will pay $195 million for the MHN processing platform and $65 million for ONGC's support vessel Samudra Suraksha, under the Shipping Corp. of India operation.
Meanwhile, ONGC is redirecting crude produced by numerous platforms in MHN to Mumbai High South facilities and to onshore facilities.
The MHN processing platform, 100 miles off Mumbai, processed part of the crude oil and associated gas produced from the Mumbai High area, which includes Mumbai High, Panna, Mukta, and Bassein fields (OGJ, Jan. 11, 1982, p. 39).