By Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Mar. 17 -- Discouraging test results of the first of four exploratory wells planned by India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) on the Bengal Block of West Bengal could result in abandonment of the WB-OSN-2000/1 well.
Transocean Inc.'s Transocean Nordic jack up drilled the $18 million well in the Sunderbans mangrove tidal swamp over 10 months, beginning in March 2005.
"This particular well had a strong gas show, and the seismic data as well as other prevailing conditions indicated the presence of a viable gas reserve," said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We know there is gas; the problem is that we have to establish it."
Though final testing results are not yet known, the company called for a "failure analysis" to evaluate the well's potential and ensure adoption of best practices in future drilling.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha, in a recent meeting in Mumbai, raised questions about possible procedural lapses at the well.
An ONGC official said, "While hitting a dry well is part of the oil and natural gas exploration activity, ONGC is trying to establish proper failure analysis studies so that precious resources do not go to waste and the success rate improves. The beginning of this process might well be with Bengal offshore."
