Andamans disappointment
Luck has so far eluded Oil India and ONGC during their ongoing exploratory drilling campaigns in the deep waters off the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
This month (May 2025), Dolphin Drilling rig Blackford Dolphin moved away from Andamans well Vijayapuram-1 at location OAWB (Lat: 12˚ 45'4.8485" N; Long: 92˚ 29'19.7318" E), where traces of gas were deemed commercially unviable. Blackford spud this well on November 11 (2024) in water depths of 93 metres on the western side of OALP-2 block AN-OSHP-2018/2 and reached 3400 metres TD on March 10 (2025).
Blackford's next drilling location for Oil India is OAEA (Lat: 12˚ 37'30.8956" N; Long: 93˚ 07'14.2468" E) at AN-OSHP-2018/1 in water depths of 300 metres. Oil India also wants to drill at location OAEB (Lat: 13˚ 00'18.2215" N; Long: 93˚ 08'45.8612" E) in water depths of 370 metres in the eastern part.
This month (May 2025), ONGC also stopped drilling at well ANDW-7 at OALP-6 block AN-UDWHP-2020/1, citing problems with the geological formation. Transocean drillship DD-KG1 had spud well ANDW-7 in water depths of 1870 metres on February 27 (2025) with a planned TD of around 2600 metres.
In April 2025, there was cautious optimism after ONGC encountered gas traces when the rig had drilled to around 2500 metres below the seabed. However, a source says issues arose with the geological formation.
ONGC finally decided to call off the drilling and prepare to move to the following location. As earlier planned, DD-KG1 will next drill one deepwater oil ministry-funded 'parametric' (exploration) well to gather information about the subsurface geology of the Andamans in water depths of 1800-2355 metres.
DD-KG1 will drill the well to 6000-7000 metres TD. After drilling the 'parametric' well, ONGC will use DD-KG1 to drill two more deepwater wells offshore in the Andamans.