ONGC to outsource Nhava base management
Clean up and streamline ONGC’s messy Nhava supply base and you could earn a hefty Rs1000cr ($200m) over 15 years.
Nhava on the Maharashtra seacoast is the lifeline for ONGC operations at the producing Mumbai High oil and gasfields. But in recent years the supply base has become inefficient and disorganised, its yards crammed with junk and equipment left lying around.
PETROWATCH learns ONGC’s powerful Executive Purchase Committee (EPC) is expected to discuss a proposal to outsource the management and operation of the base when it meets next, possibly later this month. If the EPC approves, ONGC is likely to invite Request for Quotations (RFQs) from interested companies.
It might take a month to evaluate RFQs before inviting bids from short-listed companies who will be given two months to send in proposals. Australia-based Toll Offshore, Netherlands-based Peterson Control Union, Scotland-based ASCO, Dubai-headquartered Gulf Agency Company and Mumbai-based companies Kakinada Marine & Offshore, Babaji Shivram and Arya Offshore are among those expected to compete for the job.
“Nhava is crucial for us,” says an ONGC source. Nhava supplies equipment and manpower to over 29 offshore rigs, 14 manned platforms and 80 unmanned platforms on the Mumbai High, he adds.
Untidiness at Nhava can be costly. Any delay when equipping a rig means ONGC often wastes nearly $100,000/day in standby charges.
“ONGC was thinking of moving excess equipment and materials from Nhava to a new yard at Navi Mumbai,” we hear. “But local politics spiked that plan.
” ONGC is thinking of including civil construction work, repair work to equipment racks and dredging work for the channel within the Nhava management contract.