ONGC moves 35 drilling rigs ahead of Indian monsoon season

RIO DE JANEIRO -- India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has moved a record high 35 offshore drilling rigs to new locations ahead of the Indian monsoon season.

Aqualis Offshore, the international marine and offshore engineering consultancy, said on Monday that it assisted with the large majority of the rig moves, which were conducted with the company’s specialist team of mariners and structural and geotechnical engineers in close cooperation with ONGC’s in-house rig move cell.

Each of the 35 rigs were placed at their respective monsoon locations before the onset of the seasonal adverse weather conditions. Twenty-two rigs were moved on to or from well head platforms and 13 rigs to open locations. The combined total distance travelled for all rigs was 2,535 nautical miles.

ONGC’s underwriters and their appointed consultants were Aqualis Offshore’s clients for the ONGC rig moving campaign. Under this agreement, Aqualis Offshore provides marine warranty services to ONGC’s fleet of jackups and mobile offshore production units in Indian waters.

Rodger Dickson, group marine director at Aqualis Offshore, said: “Moving 35 rigs in such a short time frame to new locations before the onset of the south west monsoon is quite an achievement and this sets a new ONGC record in terms of number of rigs moved and distance traveled.”