GE Oil & Gas has entered into a frame agreement by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) India for 55 subsea wellheads for the company’s drilling campaign offshore India.

GE said on Monday that the contract further expands a long cooperation between the two companies spanning for more than 30 years. GE has supplied ONGC with large-sized conductors, subsea wellheads and subsea trees for its offshore drilling and completion projects.

Ashish Bhandari, CEO-South Asia at GE Oil & Gas, said: “With India’s new energy policy and gas pricing policy in place we are seeing an uptick in ONGC’s exploration and development activity. This latest award will enable GE to support ONGC as its technical partner, collaborating to improve the region’s energy supply capabilities through the discovery of new fields offshore.”

The company stated that the first wellhead under the ‘multi-million dollar’ contract would be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2016. GE will be manufacturing part of the scope in India for the first time. That part of the work will be done in Kakinada, with engineering and project management support from regional teams in Singapore. This is all to support ONGC’s three-year offshore drilling campaign, in shallow to medium waters offshore India.

GE also added that it has a multi-modal facility in Pune, created to support India’s vision of self-sufficiency in manufacturing under the country’s ‘Make in India’ plan.

Bhandari said: “We have a long history with ONGC and are proud to be partnering with them to support their ambition of driving local oil and gas production. As well as the collaborative effort that will be involved, what is particularly exciting for us is that this Frame Agreement provides us with the opportunity to further develop a local talent pipeline and in-country supply base, through a steady and predictable volume.”

This deal comes off the back of a deal awarded to GE Oil & Gas last year, for the supply of subsea production systems to ONGC’s Vashishta and S-1 fields, located off India’s Amalapuram coast in the KG Basin, what was ONGC’s first foray into deepwater development in India. Also, earlier this month, GE teamed up with India’s L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Limited to manufacture subsea manifolds destined for future deepwater projects in the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast of India.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com