Weighing heavily on ONGC is its attempts to revive the Deen Dayal gas fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast in Krishna Godavari basin.

After three failed attempts to get a partner with technical expertise to work on the field which is in a tough terrain, the officials in the know said “we will go for another round of tendering but we want to be more careful and study the area more this time.” ONGC is hoping to be lucky the fourth time.

This field ONGC had acquired from a Gujarat government entity in 2017. ONGC finds itself in a fix as the field has produced negligible quantities of gas since the public sector giant had acquired Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation’s (GSPC) 80 per cent interest in the KG-OSN-2001/3. The field is adjacent to Reliance Industries- Bp KG block and ONGC’s own block in KG Basin. GSPC had sold its share to handle its own debt.

Initially, the field was tipped to hold up to 20 trillion cubic feet of in place gas reserves, but over the years the number has drastically come down. ONGC has been making attempts to revive the field on its own or to get any partner having a technical expertise to do so.

It has drilled seven development wells up-till now. However, four of these did not show viable prospects, besides severe technical challenges were encountered in three wells which were abandoned mid way.

On June 12 this year ONGC had called for Expression of interest from global oil and gas companies with requisite technical expertise and financial strength to work on the fields. Bids had closed on September 12 with no success.

For ONGC the field weighs heavy financially too as it has spent substantial amount in trying to bring the field to production. “The focus is to up our scale too,” another official said adding “we want to tread cautiously this time.”  

The KG-OSN-2001/3 block was awarded to GSPC and its partners in the first bid round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). The reservoirs in the fields are classified as high pressure high temperature (HP-HT).

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