ONGC's Iconic Jack-up Drilling Rigs Starts New Life as MOPU
OE Staff
January 3, 2023
Sagar Samrat, the iconic offshore drilling rig that helped discover India's biggest offshore oil field - the Mumbai High - in 1974, has started its new life, now as an offshore production unit.
India's national oil company ONGC said Monday that the 1973-built Sagar Samrat was commissioned as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) on December 23, 2022.
The MOPU will handle up to 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil, with a maximum export gas capacity of 2.36 million cubic meters per day and is expected to add 6000 bbls/day of oil to ONGC’s production "in the coming days."
The first oil from the WO-16 cluster flowed into the processing system of the offshore platform, and dispatch to onshore terminal started.
The WO-16 is a cluster of four marginal fields in the Arabian Sea at a water depth of 75-80 m. It is located 130 km from Mumbai which is about 40 km from the Mumbai High oil field area.
Since no nearby facility exists to produce from this field, the plan was devised to install a MOPU for production, processing, and transportation of oil and gas from WO-16 Cluster.
ONGC plans to eventually move the MOPU to other locations for the monetization of other discoveries.
During its jack-up drilling rig life, the rig drilled over 125 wells and was involved in 14 key offshore oil and gas discoveries.
