Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) announced to the stock exchanges today that it has resumed the sale of gas produced from one of the two wells in its B-80 field in Bombay offshore region. 

The well, D-2, had needed to be repaired, which has since been done. However, the other well, D-1, is still under repair — a major one, which calls for “mobilising required experts and materials”. The company has said that it would make a separate announcement on this when production from D-1 starts. 

For now, it is only D-2. Businessline has learnt that this well produces 10 million cubic feet (283,000 cubic meters) of gas. The gas is sold to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) at “a contract price based on a formula linked to global crude prices”, but at a minimum of $6/MMBTU. (MMBTU is a unit of energy content in the gas. Roughly, a thousand cubic feet of gas contains 1.03 MMBTU.) 

D-2 was producing earlier — the price realised was more than $15/MMBTU — but had to be suspended in mid-July, due to a damage in the under-buoy hose. “Previous attempts to repair were not successful due to unfavorable weather conditions,” the company said in a stock market notification today. 

HOEC won B-80 in 2016, when the government auctioned ‘discovered small fields’ that the national oil company ONGC found too small to operate. That was in the first round and since then two more rounds of DSF auctions have happened. HOEC is the operator of the field with 60 per cent participating interest; the other 40 per cent is with a Chennai-based company called Adbhoot Estates Pvt Ltd. Under the terms of the Revenue Sharing Contract (RSC), the oil and gas produced from this Block enjoys marketing and pricing freedom. 

For the year ended 2021-22, HOEC had achieved a turnover of ₹174 crore and net profit of ₹35 crore.  In October, the company alerted the stock market several times to spurt in traded volumes. On Friday, the company’s share price closed on the NSE at ₹151.50, down 60 paise (0.39 per cent.) 

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