Oil India wants MZ-ONN-2004/1 extension
Oil India is desperately hoping the ministry will grant special permission to extend the validity of Phase-I at its Mizoram block MZ-ONN-2004/1 for yet another three years.
Since receiving the PEL on May 22, 2007, Oil India has only managed to drill two dry wells at the challenging block, wedged between Bangladesh to the west and Myanmar to the east. But it committed to drill five wells under the four-year Phase-I which has already had several extensions.
"This block is geologically and logistically challenging," says an Oil India source. "We need to study it further before we drill more wells.
Oil ministry officials have forwarded our application to the DGH and we are awaiting their reply." Last month (September) Oil India abandoned the second well Keifang-1 after drilling to 3800 metres using a 2000-hp JayBee rig. This well was spud on January 1, 2016.
Gas indications had been seen in the first well Aibawk-1, spud on July 7, 2014 and drilled to 4153 metres, but this was also abandoned in October 2015. Oil India has now released the JayBee rig.