ABL Supports ONGC’s 36 Drilling Rigs Moved Pre-Monsoon

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has moved a record high pre-monsoon 36 offshore drilling rigs to new locations ahead of the Indian monsoon season.

AqualisBraemar LOC (ABL), the energy and marine consultants assisted with ONGC’s rig moves. The moves were conducted using ABL’s specialist team of mariners supported by their structural and geotechnical engineers, worked in close cooperation with ONGC’s in-house rig move cell to support this record feat.

Despite the severe constraints caused by the Covid-19 lockdown in India and Cyclone Tauktae, ONGC has safely and successfully moved all 36 offshore jack-up rigs to new drilling locations, which was a new record for the three months leading up to the adverse weather conditions associated with the Indian monsoon season.

“Moving so many rigs to new locations before the onset of the south west monsoon is always an annual challenge, but it was an immense achievement this year considering the travel limitations and constraints caused by the Covid-19 lockdown in India and with the development of Cyclone Tauktae during the last week of the rig moving season,” says Rodger Dickson, global managing director of offshore marine operations at ABL.

Each of the 36 rigs were placed at their respective monsoon locations before the onset of the seasonal adverse weather conditions. Of these, 19 rigs were moved on to or from wellhead platforms and 16 rigs to open locations and 1 to dry dock. The combined total towing distance for all rigs was approximately 3,700 nautical miles and one jack up rig was towed from the west to east coast of India during this campaign.
Under this agreement, AqualisBraemar LOC group provides marine warranty services to ONGC’s fleet of jack-ups and mobile offshore production units in Indian waters.