LNG

McDermott International, the US energy engineering company, has completed the Krishna Godavari Basin D6 block's Cluster field subsea gas development offshore the East Coast of India to meet rising domestic gas demand along with LNG imports.

McDermott said it achieved pre-commissioning and ready for start-up status for Indian company Reliance Industries, whose partner in the joint venture is BP of the UK.

BP and Reliance had announced in mid-December 2020 that first gas had been produced from the R Cluster field project.

The UK and Indian partners are developing three deepwater gas projects in block KG D6, called the R Cluster, Satellites Cluster and MJ fields.

Together these fields are expected to meet 15 percent of India’s gas demand by 2023.

“The safe and successful completion of Reliance's KG-D6 R Cluster project is a testament to McDermott's subsea experience in the Bay of Bengal,” said Ian Prescott, McDermott's Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific.

“Pre-commissioning and ready for start-up was achieved despite difficult circumstances - two severe cyclones during the first campaign and, in the second, navigating the challenging conditions of Cobvid-19,” added Prescott.

“It is an outstanding achievement and demonstrates McDermott's commitment to reliable execution,” he stated.

For the KG-D6 R Cluster project, McDermott built a yard facility in India for the fabrication of risers, jumpers and marine logistics support.

The Houston-based company explained that the project comprised two offshore campaigns.

During the first campaign, the “DLV 2000” vessel completed McDermott's first piggy-back pipelay in S-lay mode (18-inch plus a four-inch) in 4,265 feet (1,300 metres) water depth.

It also included the installation of the first ever ultra-deepwater structure, weighing 343 tons, for the “DLV 2000”.

Several six-inch pipelines, PLETs and manifolds were installed in water depths up to 6,447 feet (1,965 meters). In addition, McDermott installed India's longest dual riser.

The second campaign included installation of manifolds, manifold piles, flowlines, PLETs (S-mode and J-mode), in-line structures, jumpers and umbilicals in ultra-deepwater depths, together with major brownfield modifications to Reliance's control and riser platform.

Successful flowline and umbilical installation were completed in 6,561 feet (over 2,000 meters) water depth using three McDermott vessels: “DLV 2000”, “Lay Vessel 108” and “North Ocean 102”.

These Reliance-BP projects will utilise the existing hub infrastructure in KG D6 block with BP holding 33.33 percent and Reliance as the operator of KG D6 owning 66.67 percent.

The R Cluster was the first of the three projects to come onstream.

The field is located about 60 kilometres from the existing KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP) off the Kakinada coast and comprises a subsea production system tied back to CRP via a subsea pipeline.

The R Cluster field is expected to reach plateau gas production of about 12.9 million standard cubic metres per day in 2021.

McDermott International, the US energy and LNG engineering company, said that first gas had flowed from a field development of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) in the offshore Krishna Godavari Basin in the Bay of Bengal.

McDermott was awarded the offshore contract for ONGC’s 98/2 Block in the KG Basin in October 2018.

The KG 98/2 block is situated offshore the Godavari River delta, about 35 kilometres off the East Coast state of Andhra Pradesh and extends for 7,290 square kilometres in water depths ranging from 300 metres to 3,200 metres.

It is currently one of the largest subsea projects in India and included the supply of a package including production systems (SPS), including 26 deepwater trees, and the installation of subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines.

The early first gas involved the tie-back of a single well to the existing Vashishta facility.

At 4,265 feet (1,300 metres), the first well that has been opened for early first gas is the deepest water depth opened by ONGC.

The ONGC gas field will further help satisfy India's growing natural gas demand, about half of which is made up of domestic pipeline gas supplies from areas like the KG Basin, wile the other half comes from LNG imports.

“McDermott is a leader in the subsea space and we have worked incredibly hard to fast-track the production to early first gas,” said Ian Prescott, McDermott's Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific.

“To deliver this accelerated schedule is an exceptional achievement and testament to the benefits of the collaborative commercial model put forward to ONGC,” Prescott explained.

“Production from a deepwater well in less than 14 months is an outstanding achievement for the exploration and production industry,” he stated.

McDermott said that in line with the “Made in India' approach for the 98/2 project, a substantial amount of engineering and project management has been led from McDermott's operations in Chennai.

“This local approach is a new initiative in the deepwater subsea space for McDermott,” said the Houston-based company.

“We look forward to continuing our work in the Bay of Bengal as we help ONGC meet India's growing energy demands,” it added.

McDermott has been conducting business as usual while having to ease its financial concerns in mid-March when a US bankruptcy court in Texas approved the sale of its Lummus Technology business to global equity funds.

Under the terms of the Chapter 11 plan, McDermott will complete a comprehensive restructuring forced on it by financial problems, including those that arose from takeover of CB&I.

McDermott is involved in some of the world’s leading LNG construction projects, including several on the US Gulf Coast and the North Field Expansion in Qatar.

Currently McDermott is working with other firms on both the Cameron LNG project at Hackberry in Louisiana and the Freeport export facility at Quintana Island in Texas.

McDermott has additionally been engaged as a contractor on the Golden Pass LNG export project for Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil venture in Texas.