The Hindu Business Line : ONGC to operationalise offloading vessel

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which has been working towards stepping up its production from Bombay High, is set to operationalise the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which it has hired recently. A senior ONGC executive said the FPSO has arrived and would be operational in next three-four days.

The executive told Business Line that the deployment of FPSO or jack up production facility has emerged as one of the options to produce from well platforms of BHN area. The Delhi-based Discovery Enterprises is providing the FPSO to ONGC, sources said, adding that the company would be spending around Rs 1,000 crore over five years for hiring the vessel.

FPSO deployment

FPSO will provide process facilities in place of BHN and additional production from the well platforms of BHN, which are diverted to other process platforms. With the deployment of FPSO, it is envisaged that production from the wells/platforms can be put back on production at the shortest possible time, the executive said. Till such time that the new BHN platform is commissioned, the FPSO will be essentially required in BHN field for oil production, he said.

Oil production

Subsequent to the BHN accident in July 2005, several wells/platforms connected to BHN were closed and some were alternatively diverted to other platform wherever alternative pipelines were available for immediate evacuation. The mishap had also led to crash in production from 2,70,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 139,265 bopd. ONGC was able to restore the production to 197,803 bopd within a month of the accident. Currently, the output has improved to 246,000 bopd. After installing of FPSO the company expects the production from Bombay High to return to 270,000 bopd by month-end and rise to 300,000 bopd within 2006-07. The FPSO would give a production of approximately 9,000 bopd.

FPSO functioning

"This temporary production process facility of FPSO in place of BHN is envisaged to be operational for a period of five years first as a replacement of BHN and subsequently at one of the marginal fields, if needed," the executive stated.

Explaining the function of such a vessel, he said oil from wells in the seabed is drawn through pipes to the FPSO and is stored in the tanks provided in its hull after some processing on its deck. The produced crude oil is then offloaded onto shuttle tankers periodically. These vessels are typically suitable for middle and small-scale oil fields located far away from landfall.

The BHN platform was connected to a sub-sea network of about 20 oil wells as well as two other platforms.

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