The Hindu Business Line : GSPC, Niko to pump Rs 330 cr into Hazira

GUJARAT State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and Niko Resources, the operating partner of the Hazira field, will be investing Rs 330 crore for ramping up gas output through an offshore drilling project.

With the daily output from the Hazira land-based drilling platform (LBDP) having hit a downward curve at around 3.5 million cu.m of gas per day, the GSPC-Niko combine is looking at its first lot of six offshore wells to augment daily output by at least 2 million cu.m of additional gas.

The consortium is investing over Rs 250 crore towards fabricating a six-leg, 16-slot platform for the offshore rig at Laem Chabang in Thailand.

The platform is being fabricated by Clough Offshore, Australia and is expected to be ready for sailing to the Hazira site by mid-November.

The entire platform would be barge-mounted and towed in a semi-knocked down condition from Thailand and is expected to take a sailing time of one month to reach India.

Meanwhile, the US-based Precision Drilling will be hiring out the modular rig for the offshore platform on a daily rate contract basis.

It is understood that the company will hire out the rig for a period of 18 months during which as many as 16 wells would be drilled at offshore Hazira. As per the terms of reference, there would be a review of the contract after a period of 12 months.

The cost estimate for each well has been put at Rs 5 crore, thus taking the cost of the Hazira offshore project to Rs 330 crore.

Of this, the drilling cost per well is likely to be around Rs 2 crore.

The work on the rig-mounted platform is likely to be commissioned during the second week of January 2004.

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