India seeks long-term supply of oil-gas-LNG from Canada
15 Jan 2014 4:26 AM IST
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily used the sidelines of the Petrotech 2014 conference to court energy ministers of hydrocarbon rich nations of UAE, Bahrain, Canada, Ecuador and Libya to not just seek oil and gas supplies but also look at acquiring assets. Moily said India was seeking a long-term supply contract with Canada, a nation from where state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) last November joined private refiners Reliance Industries and Essar Oil in importing oil. 'We are keen to engage with Canada for oil and gas and LNG opportunities,' he said. 'We seriously consider Canada as a destination for investments by our national oil companies.'
While ONGC Videsh Ltd has set up a country office in Calgary to pursue investment opportunities, IOC and gas utility GAIL India are seeking opportunities to either invest in oil and gas fields including shale, or for sourcing crude oil and LNG.
'Currently, IOC is pursuing discussions for LNG off-take from Canada,' Moily said in discussions with Premier of Alberta Alison M Redford. With about 60 per cent of its energy supplies coming from the Middle East, New Delhi wants to tap newer sources to expand its basket. Western sanctions against Iran has already led to a significant drop in oil sources from what once was India's second biggest supplier.
Unrest in Libya and Sudan too have disrupted supplies. In his meeting with Libyan Oil Minister Abdulbari A Arousi, Moily pressed for the renewal of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's term contract for sourcing of crude oil. The contract fell due to unrest in the African nation. In talks with UAE's Energy Minister Suhail Mohmmed al Mazrouei, Moily said OVL may be considered by the Middle-East nation for an onshore oil exploration license as well as offshore licence.
'OVL would be keen to partner Mubadala (an investment and development company supporting the diversification of the UAE) in jointly pursuing E&P assets in third countries,' he said.
To Bahrain's Minister for Finance and incharge of national oil and gas authority Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Moily said GAIL would be interested in participating in gas sector projects in Bahrain.
Can’t drill any more D1-D3 wells, so fixing 3: Reliance
Greater Noida: Having reversed a decline in gas output at KG-D6 by starting a new production well, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is repairing three shut wells on the main fields in the block and will take up a similar number later to further improve output.
RIL and partner BP plc are carrying out remedial action to stop water ingress from choking wells even as the first production well on the block in more than four years ramped up output by over 15 per cent to 13.7 million standard cubic meters per day.
'We can't drill any more wells on (main) Dhirubhai 1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields,' RIL Executive Director P M S Prasad told reporters here.
The D1&D3 fields have proved to be less prolific than previously anticipated, forcing RIL to downgrade the recoverable reserves to 2.9 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from 10.03 tcf estimated in 2006.
Of this, about 2.2 tcf has already been produced and RIL expects the remaining 0.75 tcf could be extracted through existing wells. 'We are currently doing workovers on three shut wells,' Prasad said.
Of the 18 wells on D1&D3, 10 were shut due to water and sand seeping in. The two partners are currently attempting to cut off water ingress into three wells. If successful, they will carry out this work on a similar number of wells in 2015.
In between, they will install a compressor at the onshore terminal to pull gas up from wells that are over a kilometre below the sea.
'Workovers are fraught with risk so we have to see the result of the current workovers,' he said.
On the MA field, also in KG-D6 block, RIL-BP added the MA-8 well on 2 January and plan to drill a branch well (called side tracking) later this year by re-entering a shut well. This well will add up to 2.5 mmscmd to production. D1&D3 produce about 8.5 mmscmd and the rest of the current KG-D6 output of 13.7 mmscmd comes from MA. BP India head Sashi Mukundan said, 'This is part of the next phase of producing the gas in the MA field after the oil has been produced.'
While ONGC Videsh Ltd has set up a country office in Calgary to pursue investment opportunities, IOC and gas utility GAIL India are seeking opportunities to either invest in oil and gas fields including shale, or for sourcing crude oil and LNG.
'Currently, IOC is pursuing discussions for LNG off-take from Canada,' Moily said in discussions with Premier of Alberta Alison M Redford. With about 60 per cent of its energy supplies coming from the Middle East, New Delhi wants to tap newer sources to expand its basket. Western sanctions against Iran has already led to a significant drop in oil sources from what once was India's second biggest supplier.
Unrest in Libya and Sudan too have disrupted supplies. In his meeting with Libyan Oil Minister Abdulbari A Arousi, Moily pressed for the renewal of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's term contract for sourcing of crude oil. The contract fell due to unrest in the African nation. In talks with UAE's Energy Minister Suhail Mohmmed al Mazrouei, Moily said OVL may be considered by the Middle-East nation for an onshore oil exploration license as well as offshore licence.
'OVL would be keen to partner Mubadala (an investment and development company supporting the diversification of the UAE) in jointly pursuing E&P assets in third countries,' he said.
To Bahrain's Minister for Finance and incharge of national oil and gas authority Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Moily said GAIL would be interested in participating in gas sector projects in Bahrain.
Can’t drill any more D1-D3 wells, so fixing 3: Reliance
Greater Noida: Having reversed a decline in gas output at KG-D6 by starting a new production well, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is repairing three shut wells on the main fields in the block and will take up a similar number later to further improve output.
RIL and partner BP plc are carrying out remedial action to stop water ingress from choking wells even as the first production well on the block in more than four years ramped up output by over 15 per cent to 13.7 million standard cubic meters per day.
'We can't drill any more wells on (main) Dhirubhai 1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields,' RIL Executive Director P M S Prasad told reporters here.
The D1&D3 fields have proved to be less prolific than previously anticipated, forcing RIL to downgrade the recoverable reserves to 2.9 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from 10.03 tcf estimated in 2006.
Of this, about 2.2 tcf has already been produced and RIL expects the remaining 0.75 tcf could be extracted through existing wells. 'We are currently doing workovers on three shut wells,' Prasad said.
Of the 18 wells on D1&D3, 10 were shut due to water and sand seeping in. The two partners are currently attempting to cut off water ingress into three wells. If successful, they will carry out this work on a similar number of wells in 2015.
In between, they will install a compressor at the onshore terminal to pull gas up from wells that are over a kilometre below the sea.
'Workovers are fraught with risk so we have to see the result of the current workovers,' he said.
On the MA field, also in KG-D6 block, RIL-BP added the MA-8 well on 2 January and plan to drill a branch well (called side tracking) later this year by re-entering a shut well. This well will add up to 2.5 mmscmd to production. D1&D3 produce about 8.5 mmscmd and the rest of the current KG-D6 output of 13.7 mmscmd comes from MA. BP India head Sashi Mukundan said, 'This is part of the next phase of producing the gas in the MA field after the oil has been produced.'
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