Sagar Vijay spuds shallow well at KG-OSN-97/1
ONGC has moved its deepwater rig Sagar Vijay to eastern offshore shallow water NELP-I block KG-OSN-97/1.
Sagar Vijay is sitting in just 60 metres water depth, about 8-km from shore, and was assigned a target depth of 1300 metres before she spud the well on 20th August. For this assignment Sagar Vijay has taken a break from its deepwater drilling programme.
We understand ONGC withdrew Sagar Vijay midway during testing of her last deepwater well and sent her to KG-OSN-97/1 to fulfil its minimum work programme commitment of one well. This well is ONGCs first at KG-OSN-97/1 and target depth is likely to be reached within less than a month.
An industry source tells this report ONGC plans to use only three casings at this well: 20-inches, 13 3/8-inches and 9 5/8-inches. The well is about 60-km down dip from the two dry deepwater wells: L1 and K1, drilled recently by ONGC-hired deepwater drillship Belford Dolphin.
Seismic data indicates gas at this well, we learn. Soon after this well is completed ONGC will send Sagar Vijay to dry dock for its regular maintenance checks.
At her previous deepwater location on an ONGC eastern offshore nomination block, Sagar Vijay tested one more object 30 metres above the first, deeper object before she was pulled out for the shallow water well. A source tells us the second object was tested for three days using various choke sizes and recorded an average 270, 000 cm/d gas flow.
The top most object at 1300 metres is also expected to flow gas, we are told. ONGC knows this will be a certain gas discovery and Sagar Vijay will come back at some point in the future to test the top most zone as well.