At last Oil India tender for $70m offshore well
After nearly a year Oil India has published its much-awaited tender to hire a semisubmersible to drill a single exploration well at its 1621-sq km offshore Cauvery basin block CY-OSN-2009/2.
In its November 7 notice Oil India said it wants to hire an anchor-moored semisubmersible to drill one well by May 2015. December 1 is the pre-bid meeting; December 9 is the cut-off date for tender document sales and December 16 is the deadline for technical and commercial bids.
“We’ve finalised the well location,” confirms an Oil India source. “It lies in water depths of 400 metres and will be drilled to 5200 metres.
” Much time has been wasted on this block, first because of Oil India’s inexperience in offshore drilling; second because it tried unsuccessfully to convince the DGH and oil ministry to re-classify CY-OSN-2009/2 as a deepwater block. Oil India’s drilling campaign will target Cretaceous age Nannilam and Sattapadi geological formations.
“ONGC drilled three or four wells here in the 1980s,” adds a source. “But those were drilled only to 3500 metres.
” Oil India is targeting the same geological formations targeted by Cairn India in October 2011 at its gas discovery block SL-2007-01-001 in Sri Lanka. Reliance and partner BP also announced a gas and condensate discovery at the nearby CY-DWN-2001/2 permit in August last year some 200 miles from this block.