ONGC sees higher crude output after seven years

GOVERNMENT-owned ONGC has surpassed last year’s output of 22.247 million tonne to produce 22.262 million tonne of oil in FY15. The PSU major has seen a rise in crude oil production after seven years. The company has made elaborate efforts to turnaround its production profile despite...

constraints of ageing fields and depleting resources from them.

The increase in output in the fiscal year that ended on March 31 is due to better performance of the PSU’s assets in the western offshore region.

“Displaying a remarkable turnaround, crude oil production from western offshore fields, which contributes about 70 percent of the explorer’s total domestic production, exceeded 3,32,000 barrels per day (bopd) on March, 12. Averaging about 3,27,500 bopd for March, this is the highest production rate from the western offshore since 2008,” a leading financial daily quoted an official as saying.

ONGC is successful in reversing the crude oil production trend from all its offshore fields from what was prevailing in the past seven years.

The total output from these assets in FY15 is calculated at 14.74 million tonne as against 13.71 million during FY14, recording an increase of around 1 million tonne.

Globally, production from similar ageing fields has witnessed decline at an average of 6-7 percent every year.

So, ONGC has achieved some semblance of success to arrest the decline at below three percent.

“With meticulous use of technology-enabled processes like improved oil recovery (IOR) and monetizing offshore marginal fields in an innovative way, ONGC had successfully arrested the decline in offshore, first time in the last seven years, establishing itself in the league of world’s best brown-field managers,” the daily added.

With the average production of 2,85,330 bopd from offshore fields in FY14, the daily production has moved up to 3,07,265 bopd in FY15, registering over 7.7 percent year-on-year growth. This was due to embarking on innovative approach in offshore fields such as Mumbai High, which is producing for close to four decades. This has enabled the PSU not only to reduce the decline successfully but also grow in a sustained manner.