McDermott Lands Indian Gas for ONGC

US engineering, procurement and construction firm McDermott International has achieved early first gas at India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) Block 98/2 offshore in the Krishna Godavari Basin, it said April 1.

Early first gas involved the tie-back of a single well to the existing Vashishta facility. At 1,300 metres, the first well to be opened is the deepest in ONGC's inventory.

Awarded in October 2018, the largest subsea project in India provided ONGC with end-to-end project delivery. The integrated subsea package included 26 deepwater trees and the installation of subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines at a water depth down to 1,300 m. 

McDermott said that "to deliver this accelerated schedule is an exceptional achievement and testament to the benefits of the collaborative commercial model put forward to ONGC. Production from a deepwater well in less than 14 months is an outstanding achievement for the deepwater exploration and production industry."

And a substantial amount of engineering and project management was led from McDermott's operations in Chennai. It said: "This local approach is a new initiative in the deepwater subsea space for McDermott. We look forward to continuing our work in the Bay of Bengal as we help ONGC meet India's growing energy demands."

A US court has approved McDermott's debt restructuring plan as it goes through the 'Chapter 11' bankruptcy avoidance process.