Quippo rig to new Tripura location

ONGC is preparing to move drilling rig Quippo Rig-5 from the 33-sq km Konaban PML in Tripura to drill a new Managed Pressure Drilling well at the 1327.58-sq km West Tripura PML.

"This is the first time a Managed Pressure Drilling well will be drilled in this region," reports an ONGC source. On June 17 (2020), Rig-5 spud ROAH_SUB and had drilled well ROAH_SUB (Lat: 23° 42' 22.197" Long: 91° 10' 55.445") at the Konaban PML to 2800 metres.

But Oil India was unable to deploy Halliburton engineers to help lower 13.3/8-inch casing because of Covid-19 travel restrictions and decided to cut its losses and move the rig to location BRMAF (Lat: 23° 59' 05.684" Long: 91° 32' 24.870") in the West Tripura PML where it will drill to 3300 metres TD. "They (Halliburton) could not reach the site so we had to move on," we hear.

"It was a colossal waste of time and money." Oil India released well location BRMAF in 2015 and won environmental clearance to drill the well alongside locations BRMAI, BRMAG and BRMAH in 2017.

"But the three other wells were abandoned," says a source. "BRMAF was set aside as a (MPD) location to be drilled from the same plinth."