ONGC slashes Kavitam-5 gas output

ONGC has pushed back plans to hire a skid-mounted oil and gas surface production facility to 'fast track' production from its promising Kavitam-5 discovery in Andhra Pradesh after halving the well's expected gas output from 500,000 to 250,000 cm/d.

An ONGC source tells us plans to tender for the oil and gas production facility for three years will now be released in July (2021). Instead of issuing the tender in April, as widely expected, ONGC instead released a revised scope of work, including scaled-down production figures, for a three-year contract to design, supply, install and commission the facility to separate oil, gas and water.

John Energy, Deep Industries, HAL Offshore, Multitex Filtration and Techno Canada are among likely bidders. On September 1 (2020), ONGC announced that 'New Prospect' exploration well Kavitam-5 tested 498,560 cm/d - the latest in a series of promising discoveries at the 120.35-sq km Kavitam Additional PML in ONGC's Rajahmundry asset.

At the same block, ONGC announced on February 14 (2020) that well Penugonda-5 at location PGAE tested 80,850 cm/d while Gummaturu-1 at location GMTAA flowed 358,400 cm/d "in a separate fault block" west of Penugonda. Earlier still, ONGC announced in February 2013 that well Kavitam-2 tested 22,439 cm/d, 38,178 cm/d and 23,227 cm/d from three different zones in Raghavpuram shales formations.