The Hindu : Business : ONGC contests DGH ruling on gas find

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
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Business

Business

ONGC contests DGH ruling on gas find

Special Correspondent

Stands by its assessment on Krishna Godavari basin discovery

NEW DELHI: Standing by its assessment about discovery of natural gas of the Eastern Coast in Krishna Godavari basin block, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has written to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) that it stands by its assessment of in-place gas volumes of 2.09 to 14.76 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

In response to the DGH, V. K. Sibal, disallowing ONGC gas discovery on the grounds that it had abandoned the gas bearing well without doing conventional testing, ONGC stated the company had performed the universally accepted modular dynamic testing (MDT) to establish presence of gas reserves in the well UD-1 in Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2.

The non-acceptance of the discovery has come as a surprise and it is found difficult to comprehend the motive behind it, Director (exploration), D. K. Pandey, is understood to have written to THE DGH.

It has also pointed out that during the meeting held with the ONGC Chairman, R. S. Sharma, recently, Mr. Sibal had accepted MDT as a conclusive testing methodology, the letter states.

ONGC said that in such deepwater locations, a conventional test consumes 15 days against 8 hours per MDT, thus allowing multiplicity of the test in a given zone.

A conventional test validation is not necessitated when mini-DST technique gave the assurance that hydrocarbons can be produced at surface at commercial rates.

The company said it stood by its assessment of 2.09 to 6.73 TCF initial in-place volumes in the northern structure and 2.61 to 8.03 TCF in the southern structure identified through the UD-1 well. The in-place volumes for both the culminations range from 2.09 TCF to 14.76 TCF.

The well was abandoned as per the industry's standard practice with a provision for re-entry by placing a corrosion cap, so that it is possible to start production at a future date. The well was under control and the decision to abandon it was taken after fulfilling all the objectives of the well.

The drilling complication and loss of fish are natural operational hazards. On doing DST test rather than conventional testing, ONGC said, straddle packer MDT-based mini-DST definitely establishes movement of hydrocarbons, which can be recovered at surface. It had obtained all the parameters that could be traditionally obtained from conventional testing, the company said.

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