Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) plans to carry out drilling programme at its two onshore Cambay blocks in Gujarat for a proposed project cost of Rs 3.45 billion. HOEC shares the blocks with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC).
“HOEC has decided to carry out drilling at Asjol and North Balol in Cambay basin. A public hearing for the purpose has been organized last month by Gujarat Pollution Control Board at Palaj village in Mehsana,” said sources close to the development.
HOEC plans to drill four infill wells and six development wells at Asjol and proposes drilling of 16 development wells in the North Balol block. The project cost estimated for the proposed drilling campaign for both Asjol and North Balol blocks is Rs 3.45 billion, according to the environment impact assessment (EIA) report submitted to GSPC.
HOEC is planning to drill each well up to 1200 metres depth for an estimated cost of Rs 130 million each well.
At Asjol, HOEC will drill ten wells. The company also proposes to lay underground pipelines and hook up to the existing gathering facility located at Asjol-5 well site. The wells shall be hooked up to the nearest existing well-site manifold for transferring the produced oil to the Asjol EPS.
Discovered by ONGC in December 1972, the 15-sq km Asjol block located 25-km south-west of Mehsana is surrounded by many producing oil fields of ONGC such as North Kadi, Santhal, Balol and Becharaji. A consortium of HOEC (50%) and GSPC (50%) was awarded the block in 1994.
The initial oil estimate in the Asjol oil field is about 10.7mn barrels. Recoverable Reserves have been estimated to be about 0.553mn barrels till March 31 (2021). The total production from the field was about 0.3344mn barrels.
Out of all existing wells, three wells: Asjol#5, Asjol#6 and Asjol#7 are presently on production, and the average total field production rate from these wells is around 50 barrels per day.
