Platinum Explorer to west coast
Deepwater drillship Platinum Explorer is moving from the east coast to the Kerala Konkan basin on India’s west coast to drill its next exploration well for ONGC.
Well KK-M2E sitting in water depths of 1550 metres will be drilled to 3700 metres TD at NELP-IV block KK-DWN-2002/2 in mid-January, confirm ONGC sources. ONGC (80% and operator) shares 22,810-sq KK-DWN-2002/2 with HPCL (20%) and in 2012 hired UK-registered Marine Geology Services (MGS) to shoot 2200-lkm ‘long offset’ 2D and 800-lkm ‘ocean bottom’ 2D using vessel Mezen under a contract awarded on March 7, 2012.
Sitting in water depths of up to 2700 metres, ONGC has applied to the DGH to merge this block with adjacent KK-DWN-2002/3 also operated by ONGC (80%) with HPCL (20%). ONGC is mobilising Platinum Explorer to the west coast following the successful ‘completion’ of deepwater well MDW-23 at Mahanadi block MN-DWN-98/3, ONGC 100% operator.
