HPCL in new oil find off Gujarat coast

A consortium of GSPC and state-owned refiner and oil marketer HPCL and other partners have made an oil find off the west coast in Cambay basin, reports Deepak Joshi.

A consortium of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) and state-owned refiner and oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and other partners have made an oil find off the west coast in Cambay basin.

HT Image

The discovery has been acknowledged by upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. This is the first discovery by HPCL in their first exploration venture probed by exploratory drilling and marks the first success in HPCL’s efforts towards vertical integration.

The exploration Block CB-ONN-2002/3 of about 285 square km of area was awarded to the consortium of GSPC (55 per cent), Jubilant Oil & Gas Pvt Ltd (20 per cent), Prize Petroleum Co Ltd (PPCL) (15 per cent) and Geo Global Resources (Barbados) Inc(10 per cent) under the fourth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in 2004. PPCL has assigned its 15 per cent Participation Interest (PI) to its promoter and parent company HPCL.

An HPCL statement said the discovery appears to be part of a large structure that may have significant reserves and needs to be appraised and delineated further through exploratory drilling. The production rate may further improve after well stimulation.

Finally, four objects were tested at various depths from 1651 to 2457 metres. The initial test result observed a flow rate of 180 barrels of oil per day, which can further be improved by various workovers using latest engineering techniques.