HOEC plans 3 workovers and 2 Dirok wells
HOEC has laid out ambitious plans to increase gas production at its Dirok field at the pre-NELP block AAP-ON-94/1 in Assam's Tinsukia district.
On November 13 (2023), HOEC's new managing director, R Jeevandam, revealed plans to ramp up production to 1.4m cm/d (50m cf/d) from 2024-25 and to 1.98m cm/d (70m cf/d) by 2025-26, while addressing his first earnings conference call for the second quarter (July-September 2023). Jeevandam replaced Pandarinathan Elango as MD on October 1 (2023).
"To keep ourselves prepared and ramp up production, three legacy wells, Dirok-1, 2 and 4, will be worked over to enhance production and extract additional data," he said. "This programme is expected to start in the fourth quarter (January-March 2024)."
Added Jeevandam: "After these workovers, we plan to drill two additional producers (in 2025-26) to ramp up to 70m cf/d subject to the growth of demand and connectivity to the national gas grid." During the call, Jeevanandam said Dirok currently produces a little over 20m cf/d (566,000 cm/d).
"Once the new gas pipelines are connected, we can ramp up production to 50m cf/d," he said. "This field can produce about 50m cf/d (but) we have to restrict the production due to lack of demand and the volatility in offtake due to break-down plant maintenance of major consumers; once the Indradhanush (northeastern Indian gas) pipeline is fully established and connected to the national gas grid, we can ramp up production to 70m cf/d from 2025-26."
In the three months from July to September 2023, gas offtake from Dirok increased to an average of 651,000 cm/d (23m cf/d) compared to 283,000 cm/d (10m cf/d) in the previous quarter from April to June 2023. For July to September 2023, Dirok gas sales stood at 0.56-bcf, and condensate sales were 10,350 barrels compared to 0.24-bcf and 4573 barrels from April to June 2023.
"Workovers will not take long," added Jeevandam. HOEC targets 15 to 20 days to work over each well, beginning with the first well in March (2024) and the other two in April to June 2024.