ONGC, RIL, BG to Abandon Tapti Gas Field

Joint venture partners in the Tapti field of the Panna-Mukta-Tapti consortium will abandoned the field in a year's time because of its wells' poor output, reports Business Standard newspaper.

Partners in the field are Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with 40 per cent stake and British Gas India and Reliance Industries (RIL) with 30 per cent stake each.

It will be the first offshore field to be abandoned in India, says Business Standard.

"The JV partners witnessed poor performance from the newly drilled wells. Re-evaluation of the field showed a significant drop in reserves. The field is moving towards early abandonment," RIL said in a presentation to analysts after the company's fourth-quarter results.

The JV (joint venture) partners have submitted their proposal to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for early abandonment of the field. "The proposal is under review with the Government of India," RIL added.

The Panna and Mukta fields are primarily oilfields while Tapti is a gas field.

During the 2014 fiscal, the Tapti field produced 0.28 million barrels of condensate and 27.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas, a decline of 48 per cent and 38 per cent respectively year-on-year. "The decrease is due to the underperformance of newly drilled wells in the previous year as well as on account of natural decline in the existing wells," Business Standard quotes RIL as saying.

Consortium sources the newspaper the abandonment or decommissioning of the field would cost around $300-350 million and the filed would be abandoned by June 2015.