Page 10 - AsianOil Week 21 2022

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

ONGC unveils 150% increase

in exploration capex

INVESTMENT INDIA’S Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) oil equivalent of yet-to-be-discovered reserves
announced it had held a board meeting this over the 2022-25 fiscal years under the internal
week exclusively for the purpose of firming up its programme. This will include carrying out 2D
future exploration strategy. The meeting resulted and 3D seismic surveys, followed by the drilling
in the company allocating an exploration capi- of around 115-120 wells over the period, at an
tal expenditure budget of INR310bn ($4bn) estimated cost of INR100bn ($1.3bn) per year.
for the 2022-25 fiscal years. This represents a Under the government-funded programme
150% increase on exploration expenditure of for appraisal of offshore areas in India’s Exclusive
INR206.7bn ($2.7bn) over the last three fiscal Economic Zone (EEZ), 70,000 line kilometres of
years, 2019-22. 2D broadband seismic data acquisition, process-
The company said in a statement that the ing and interpretation will be carried out. This
intensification of its exploration efforts would will take place off the West Coast and East Coast
include activities funded through its internal and in the Andaman offshore area. ONGC said
programme as well as those funded and facili- it would complete the technical bid opening for
tated by the Indian government. seismic data acquisition by June.
ONGC’s internal programme has three The company noted that it planned to drill
components – the re-exploration of mature six wells in the next three years in the Andaman
basins, consolidation of emerging basins and Basin – two under its own work programme and
efforts to assess the potential of emerging and four funded by the government.
new basins. The company said it was trying to ONGC intends to bring around 500,000
“probe” around 1.7bn tonnes (12.5bn barrels) of square km under active exploration by 2025.™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Bumi Armada receives extension

for FPSO delivery to India

PROJECTS & MALAYSIAN offshore contractor Bumi conversion would include hull repairs and
COMPANIES Armada said this week that it had received an upgrading as well as fabrication of at least three
extension for the delivery of a floating produc- topside modules that would be installed on the
tion, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to vessel.
India. The charter contract for the FPSO is esti-
The FPSO will be deployed at the Cluster-II mated to be worth around $2bn and covers a
project in India’s Krishna Godavari Basin, which period of nine years.
is being developed by state-owned Oil and Nat- Bumi also said in its earnings release that
ural Gas Corp. (ONGC) as part of the bigger it had achieved a net profit of MYR185.8mn
The Ariake VLCC is KG-DWN-98/2 venture. The vessel is under ($42.4mn) in the first quarter, up from
being converted into an construction by Sembcorp Marine in Singapore, MYR162.8mn ($37.1mn) year on year and from
FPSO. but Bumi had previously said that construction MYR118.0mn ($26.9mn) in the fourth quarter
had been delayed owing to various factors, of 2021.
including the pandemic. “The strong oil price augurs well for the oil
In its first-quarter earnings release, Bumi and gas sector, which has witnessed increased
said that the charterer – ONGC – had granted activities across the entire value chain, including
an extension this month until the end of 2022 for the floating offshore solutions segment,” Bumi
completion of the vessel. said in the first-quarter report. “The group
Sembcorp is converting the Ariake very expects our existing business to be stable for the
large crude carrier (VLCC) into an FPSO rest of 2022 and is pursuing new opportunities in
capable of producing up to 90,000 barrels targeted markets.”
per day (bpd), with storage capacity of 1.3mn The company currently has six FPSOs in
barrels. The company had previously said the operation around the world.™

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