After 25 years of operating the Panna-Mukta oil and gas fields, the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) joint venture partners will hand over the oil & gas fields back to the government of India’s nominee, ONGC, on Saturday, December 21, the companies said.
The PMT JV, includes Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries (RIL) and BG Exploration and Production India (BGEPIL), a subsidiary of Shell India,in which each hold respectively 40%, 30% and 30% participating interest in the JV. Shell took over British Gas in a $53-billion deal in 2016, after which it took over the British Gas India stake in the JV.
The PMT fields were the first fields in India to be operated under a joint operatorship model. The Panna-Mukta fields, off the Mumbai coast, have produced 211 million barrels of oil and 1.25 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas since December 1994. In 2019, the average monthly production from the fields was around 10,000 barrels per day of crude oil and 140 million metric standard cubic feet of natural gas per day.
B Ganguly, president for E&P, Reliance Industries, said, “At their peak, Panna-Mukta have contributed to nearly 6% of India’s oil production and almost 7% of India’s gas production in the year 2007-08. Reliance has been a part of this journey and has contributed by providing energy to growth and development of India’s oil and gas sector.”
The production sharing contracts (PSC) for the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields, which were executed by the PMT JV with the government of India in 1994, will expire on Saturday. The Tapti fields had ceased production earlier in 2016 and the Tapti process platform facilities were handed over to ONGC (GoI nominee) in 2016.
The decommissioning and site restoration of residual Tapti facilities, including five unmanned platforms and in-field pipelines, are currently being carried out by the PMT JV under India’s first offshore decommissioning and site restoration project. The Tapti decommissioning and other commercial activities would continue in BGEPIL even after Panna-Mukta handover.
Trivikram Arun, managing director, BGEPIL, said, “Shell is proud to have been part of this journey and privileged to have partnered with Reliance, ONGC and the government of India. Our teams have worked relentlessly to ensure a safe handover of the producing fields from the PMT JV to ONGC at the end of the term.”
Get live Stock Prices from BSE and NSE and latest NAV, portfolio of Mutual Funds, calculate your tax by Income Tax Calculator, know market’s Top Gainers, Top Losers & Best Equity Funds. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Source: Financial Express
