Bhandut revival picks up as Kiri plans 3 wells
Barmer-based oil and gas newcomer Kiri & Company Logistics is accelerating the development of its tiny Bhandut field in south Gujarat.
Not only has Kiri begun flowing gas from two wells, but it is also preparing to begin a three-well exploration campaign by April (2022). Confident Kiri is preparing to kick off the three-well campaign using its company-owned 1000-hp Rig-807, one of three bought from Weatherford in 2020.
"We have completed civil works at two sites, and work is on at the third," a source tells us. Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI), the research wing of the Reliance and GSPC-promoted Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), helped Kiri finalise the drilling locations.
In February (2022), Kiri completed workovers at two wells under a $3.8m campaign. "Gas flow has begun from Bhandut-6, and we have found gas in Bhandut-3," adds our source.
Kiri began the workovers on January 29 (2022) using Ahmedabad-based Aakash Exploration's 50-tonne Rig-9. Asked about the gas flow rate, our source complains that a meter installed by GSPC to measure gas flow is not working.
"We must install a new meter," he says. Kiri needs to revamp the facilities, "under care and maintenance" since 2017 when Bhandut was shut-in.
"We have high hopes from Bhandut-3," we hear. "It was producing a good quantity of gas."
Australian operator Oilex sold its 40% stake to Kiri last year (2021) for $290,000 after producing from Bhandut-3 in 2016 after testing 184,370 cm/d 'lean gas' with 94% methane at a flowing tubing head pressure of 1190-psi in August 2013. But in less than a year, Oilex suspended production because of a high 'water cut'.
Kiri is also working over wells Bhandut-5 and Bhandut-4 and reporting high 'water cut'. Kiri has laid a pipeline network to carry the gas to an Early Production System (EPS) to supply Ahmedabad-based gas trader Enertech Fuel Solutions, which also buys gas from Oilex's Cambay field and the GSPC-operated Tarapur, Sanand East and Sanand-Miroli Cambay basin blocks in Gujarat.
"For now, we are flaring the gas because Enertech hasn't laid the gas evacuation pipeline from Bhandut yet," we hear.