Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has awarded a multi-million dollar frame agreement to US energy giant GE Oil & Gas, under which the latter will support the state firm's exploratory drilling campaign in shallow to medium waters for the next three years.
GE will provide an estimated 55 subsea wellheads (SG5) over three years for the operator's offshore drilling campaign, GE said in a statement. GE has supplied ONGC with subsea production equipment for more than 30 years, including large-sized conductors, subsea wellheads and subsea trees for its offshore drilling and completion projects, the company said.
Under the contract, the first wellhead will be supplied in the fourth quarter of 2016, with GE manufacturing part of the scope in India for the first time, in Kakinada, with engineering and project management support from regional teams in Singapore.
"With India's new energy policy and gas pricing policy in place, we are seeing an uptick in ONGC's exploration and development activity. This latest award will enable GE to support ONGC as its technical partner, collaborating to improve the region's energy supply capabilities through the discovery of new fields offshore," said Ashish Bhandari, CEO-South Asia at GE Oil & Gas.
Last year, GE had received a contract to supply subsea production systems to ONGC's Vashishta (VA) and S-1fields in the KG Basin.
ONGC is planning to keep capital spending in 2016-17 at about Rs 29,000 crore. It was about Rs 31,000 crore last fiscal. The company has also firmed up a $5 billion plan to develop its deep sea assets in the KG basin off the eastern coast.
