India’s Engineering and construction contractor Essar Projects India Ltd. has completed the commissioning of four offshore well platforms for India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
An Essar-led consortium, with Saipem as the engineering partner, was awarded a contract for engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning (EPCIC) of four new well platforms by ONGC.
Of these, three platforms are in the C-26 Cluster (C-23, C-26, and B-12-1) in the Tapti field, situated some 160-200 kilometers northwest of Mumbai in water depths between 20 and 30 meters.
The fourth platform, B-173 AB, is adjacent to an existing B-173 A platform in the Neelam field, situated 50 kilometers west of Mumbai. The project also involved installing a bridge connecting the new B-173 AB platform with the operational B-173 A platform as well as structural and process modifications related to the integration of the two platforms. The value of the contract is around $90 million.
The company said that the project entailed procurement, fabrication, and installation of approximately 10,000 tonnes of steel. The primary structures of the platforms were fabricated at Adyard, Abu Dhabi, and transported to India. Fabrication activities for associated structures were executed simultaneously from four different locations of sub-vendors of Adyard.
As a result, the Essar Projects team managed to complete most of the work, including major installations of deck and jacket, before the close of the clear weather window in May 2016. The remaining hook-up and pre-commissioning work was executed after the end of the 2016 monsoons.
Av Amarnath , COO of EPIL, said: “We are the first Indian company that ventured into the challenging business of offshore construction in the late 1980s, executing the Bassein field water injection and platform and pipeline modification project for ONGC.
“Since then, EPIL has provided a range of project management and EPCIC services to various clients in the offshore sector. ONGC itself has been a long-standing client. In the recent past, EPIL has executed EPC contracts for reconstructing six platforms in the Neelam-Heera Process Complex, as well as three SMART platforms, offshore pipelines, composite cables and PLEM in the D1 field.”