Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to drill a record 130 wells at its prime Mumbai High oil and gas fields in a bid to rejuvenate the ageing reservoir in the Arabian Sea.

The drilling campaign, which will cost over $1.1 billion, will start later this year and continue for three-four years. The wells are part of the third phase of the Mumbai High redevelopment plan, official sources said.

ONGC is investing almost Rs 20,000 crore in the third phase of redevelopment at Mumbai High, targeting production of 132 million to 147 million barrels of additional crude oil.

Sources said 73 new offshore wells will be drilled on the northern part and another 50 in Mumbai High South. Also, 38 poor producer wells on Mumbai High North will be side-tracked.

Besides, new wellhead platforms and sub-sea pipelines will be built to replace old ones.

ONGC wants integrate the development of small reservoirs (L—II and L—I) with the main reservoir (L—III) to improve overall oil production and development economics.

The company has already undertaken two phases of redevelopment at Mumbai High. During the first phase, more than $1.5 billion was spent, which led to 57 million tonnes of incremental crude and 16 billion cubic metres of gas.

In the second phase, $2.83 billion was spent to get 36 million tonnes of incremental crude oil and 6 billion cubic meters of gas.

The phase—1 redevelopment was completed in 2007, with production levels rising from 131,400 barrels per day in June 2001 to 173,000 bpd by the beginning of 2007.

Phase II, which was launched after the completion of the first phase, is expected to improve oil recovery to 34.5 per cent by March 2030.

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