ONGC, Cairn India Sign Deal For North Tapti Gas Fields

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has entered into an agreement to use Cairn India's western offshore facilities to produce natural gas from its North Tapti fields.

The state owned energy firm began production from North Tapti gas fields last month and is using the existing production facilities of the nearby Lakshmi and Gauri fields in the CB/OS-2 block operated by Cairn India, Economic Times reported citing  industry sources.

North Tapti asset lies 20 km from Cairn India's Cambay basin block CB-OS/2's LA platform, and is estimated to hold 145 billion cubic feet of gas reserves.

ONGC is transporting the unprocessed gas from North Tapti to Lakshmi A platform. Cairn then processes the gas at its Suvali terminal before delivering it to ONGC for sale to customers, sources said.

Cairn India's Lakshmi A platform has been connected to ONGC's North Tapti platform through an 18-inch, 20 km undersea pipeline. As per the agreement, Cairn India will receive a tolling and processing fee for the entire process, they said.

ONGC has a 15 per cent interest in CB-OS/2 fields. As on date, ONGC is producing gas from three wells on the North Tapti field. Current production is around 18-20 million standard cubic feet per day.

ONGC plans to drill another three more wells to raise production to 1.8 million standard cubic meters per day.

Sources said initially ONGC had planned to develop North Tapti field together with Ambe marginal gas find in the CB/OS-2 block to optimise investment in pipeline and other processing infrastructure.

It had estimated that North Tapti and Ambe together could produce over 3 mmscmd of gas. But Cairn later dropped the Ambe development plan. ONGC thereafter developed North Tapti as a standalone project.