First of seven DSF fields in Gujarat begins commercial production: DGH officials

“These seven discoveries in Gujarat are part of the 75 discoveries across the country that have been tendered out,” said SCL Das, Director General.

The first of the seven Discovered Small Fields (DSF) in Gujarat that are being monetised by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), has begun commercial production at Kamboi in Patan district on June 11, officials said Friday. These seven small discoveries can together yield an estimated 1100-1200 barrels per day of crude oil.

“These seven discoveries in Gujarat are part of the 75 discoveries across the country that have been tendered out,” said SCL Das, Director General, DGH while talking to The Indian Express on the sidelines of “Investors meet on Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Opportunities in Gujarat” held at the Pandit Deendayal Energy University in Gandhinagar.

These seven discoveries are located in Mehsana, Patan, Anand and Bharuch. These are small discoveries, made by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) are 15-20 years old and were lying unexploited due to lack of interest from bigger players. “The first producer of DSF (Discovered Small Fields) is a new entrant in Gujarat who has started commercial production from Kamboi fields from June 11, 2021,” said Dr Anand Gupta, additional Director General (Development), DGH.

The government has awarded contracts with respect to Discovered Small Fields (DSF) Bid Round-I conducted in 2017 and Round-II held in 2019. Under DSF-I and DSF-II, a total of seven contracts have been offered in Gujarat, all of them are new entrants, without prior technical expertise and DGH is hand-holding these companies for the respective projects. Of the four contracts awarded as part of DSF-I, Kolkata-based Nippon Power Limited was given the contract to develop both Kamboi and West Becharaji near Mehsana.

“The big players were not interested and so we encouraged smaller operators to come in. We have given them some fiscal incentives too. Though 1100 barrels per day of crude is not a big volume, it is important that these unmonetised assets will became functional,” said Gupta said during an interaction on the sidelines.

Apart from Kamboi, the Khambel field (Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd) in Mehsana district is expected to begin commercial production in September 2021 and the South Patan field is expected to be commissioned by Ahmedabad-based South Asia Consultancy in third quarter of the current fiscal.

Buoyed by the success of DSF-I and DSF-II, the DGH is now offering larger contract areas along with the discoveries to enable developers to carry out exploratory activities.

“We have launched DSF-III on June 10, where we are launching more discoveries and inviting investors to bid for them. We are here today as part of the investors meet. The gas discoveries in Kutch offshore also figures in this round of bidding where ONGC is expected to participate,” said Gupta. The gas discoveries in Kutch were made by ONGC a couple of years ago.

Speaking at the investors meet, Subhash Kumar, CMD of ONGC said, “The discovery in Kutch is a large one. There is 20 billion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. The ongoing DSF round will be very helpful because on standalone basis, the development of that much volume of gas in challenging environment is becoming difficult. So while we will participate (in the bidding) and if someone else finds gas in that area, we can come together, will go a long way in making it a win-win situation. Collaboration would be the key to bring in Kutch gas to early production.”

Gujarat currently produces 5.2 million metric tonnes of oil and one billion cubic feet of natural gas, said Kumar. Speaking at the meet, Tarun Kapoor,

secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said Gujarat currently accounts for 16 per cent of the country’s oil production. “Production wise, Gujarat is doing well even now. But the total area available onshore is still largely unexplored. There is a lot of potential within the state,” Kapoor added.

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