Livemint | Hardeep Singh Puri re-dedicates ONGC’s iconic Sagar Samrat to nation

Jan 28,2023

Union Petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri rededicated Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) iconic drilling rig Sagar Samrat, as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) on Saturday at a ceremony held on Sagar Samrat and said, “ONGC Jeetega toh India Jeetega (ONGC’s victory is India’s victory)."

The Minister later visited ONGC Kendriya Vidyalaya Grounds, Panvel Phase 1 to meet the Energy Soldiers of ONGC and their families.

The Minister highlighted how Sagar Samrat is a testimony of India’s vision of producing its own oil when it was globally labelled as “barren" in terms of hydrocarbon exploration. The Minister stated that in harnessing India’s most prominent and prolific oilfield, ONGC has consistently committed itself to the pursuit of knowledge, continual excellence and the willingness to evolve technologically.

Commissioned in 1973, Sagar Samrat was built at the Mitsubishi yard in Japan and set sail from Hiroshima on 3 April 1973. It drilled ONGC’s first Offshore well in 1974 in Mumbai Offshore region of Arabian Sea, then called the Bombay High. Sagar Samrat turned tides of India’s oil fortune by putting it on the global oil map.

“In 32 years, Sagar Samrat has drilled almost 125 wells and has been involved with 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 British engineering and consulting conglomerate Wood Group’s Mustang unit based in Texas carried out the front-end engineering and design for the vessel’s conversion," the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas said in a statement.

MOPU Sagar Samrat commenced production on 23 December 2022. The vessel is presently deployed at Western Offshore (WO)-16 field, located 140-145 kilometres west of Mumbai. Located adjacent to the ONGC’s existing WO-16 well head platform (WHP) in 76m of water depth, the vessel will be instrumental in producing from marginal fields in WO cluster thereby augmenting production from Western Offshore.

The MOPU is designed to handle 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil and has a maximum export gas capacity of 2.36 million cubic meters per day.






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