Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri rededicated the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) iconic Sagar Samrat drilling rig as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) on Saturday at a ceremony held at Sagar Samrat and said: “ONGC Jeetega toh India Jeetega (ONGC’s victory is India’s victory)”.
Subsequently, the Minister visited ONGC Kendriya Vidyalaya Grounds, Panvel Phase 1 to meet with ONGC Energy Soldiers and their families.
The Minister highlighted how Sagar Samrat is a testament to India’s vision of producing its own oil when it was globally labeled “barren” in terms of hydrocarbon exploration. The Minister stated that by taking advantage of India’s most prominent and prolific oilfield, ONGC has consistently committed itself to the pursuit of knowledge, continuous excellence and the willingness to evolve technologically.
Commissioned in 1973, Sagar Samrat was built at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Japan and sailed from Hiroshima on 3 April 1973. She drilled ONGC’s first offshore well in 1974 in the Mumbai offshore region of the Arabian Sea, then called Bombay High. Sagar Samrat turned the tide of India’s oil fortunes by putting it on the world oil map.
“In 32 years, Sagar Samrat has drilled nearly 125 wells and has been involved in 14 key offshore oil and gas discoveries in India. Initially a jack-up drilling rig, Sagar Samrat has now been converted into a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU). The Mustang unit of Texas-based British engineering and consultancy conglomerate Wood Group carried out the front-end engineering and design for the vessel’s conversion,” the Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas said in a statement.
MOPU Sagar Samrat started production on December 23, 2022. The vessel is currently deployed in the Western Offshore (WO)-16 field, located 140-145 kilometers west of Mumbai. Located next to ONGC’s existing WO-16 wellhead platform (WHP) in 76m water depth, the vessel will be instrumental in producing marginal fields in the WO pool, thereby increasing Western Offshore production.
MOPU is designed to handle 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil and has a maximum gas export capacity of 2.36 million cubic meters per day.