“ONGC Jeetega toh India Jeetega (ONGC’s victory is India’s victory)”, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri said while rededicating Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) iconic drilling rig Sagar Samrat, as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) at a ceremony held on Sagar Samrat. The Minister later visited ONGC Kendriya Vidyalaya Grounds, Panvel Phase 1 to meet the Energy Soldiers of ONGC and their families.
The Minister met the ONGC employees who manned the Sagar Samrat as a drilling rig and also the team which worked on converting it to a MOPU. He felicitated the initial crew members of Sagar Samrat who worked in the seventies after Bombay High discovery. Minister motivated the Energy Soldiers of ONGC to continue their efforts for India’s energy security. 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. He 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.
The crew of Sagar Samrat were inspired by the Minister, who extolled them by saying that, “You are the Energy Soldiers whose efforts add strength to the energy revolution happening in India now. You are the crew which is driving India’s energy transformation. Your efforts fuel our journey towards realizing our national energy goals. God bless you.” The Minister said that ONGC has to become more agile and employees have to reorient like Sagar Samrat.
Celebrations on the occasion included an educational exhibition featuring models of ONGC’s rigs and platforms along with core samples. A dance performance celebrating ‘Colours of India’ also took place, along with several competitions. The Minister interacted with ONGC employees and families and inspired them that the future of growing India depends on their contribution. India is growing fastest in the world and its energy needs are vital.
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 the Arabian Sea, then called the Bombay High. Sagar Samrat turned the 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.
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 76 m 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.
