ONGC may re-tender Bassein Expansion EPC contract
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The national oil company (NOC), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is considering on last minute to rethink the scope of work for its Bassein Expansion project offshore India.
Although the Bassein Development project has reached its final bidding stage to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, ONGC may postpone the award again to change the scope of work.
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The Bassein project is located along the west coast of India shallow water.
Lying by 70 meters water deep in the Arabian Sea, the South Bassein gas field stands 80 kilometers northwest of Numbai in Maharashtra.
Discovered in 1976, ONGC started the production of natural gas only in 1987 because of the high sulfide content of the field.
The Bassein Platform A (BPA) and Bassein Platform B (BPB) were the first gas processing platforms to enter commercial operations in 1987 and 1988 respectively.
Then after pre-treatment offshore, the gas is exported to the Hazira gas processing plant.
Designed to last 25 years, the high content of sulfides and the new regulations edited by the Indian Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) require the existing platforms and infrastructures to be revamped in parallel to the Bassein project expansion.
ONGC to phase South-Bassein gas field development
All together with the revamping/upgrading of the existing facilities and with the construction of additional production infrastructures, ONGC is planning to spend more than $6 billion capital expenditure in order to maintain production until 2030.
Planning this revamping/upgrading and expansion of the Bassein gas field in several phases, ONGC had planned for this first expansion with approximately $500 million capital expenditure covering a:
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- New central processing platform (BCPA-3) to be bridged to the existing platform BCPA-2
- New living quarters platform (BLQ-3) to host 50 to 100 persons
- New wellhead platform equipped with nine slots for exploration or production
- Modifications on the existing central processing platform BPA
The new central processing platform BCPA-3 should run:
- Two raw natural gas separators plus space for further expansion with a third unit
- Two gas compressors with a capacity of 5 million cubic meter per day each
The wet gas separators will have a production capacity per unit of:
- 5 million cubic meter per day (cbm) of gas
- 6000 barrels per day (b/d) of liquids
Afcons, L&T and Swiber at final stage for Bassein
For this Bassein expansion project, 15 engineering companies from India and abroad where qualified by ONGC and withdrew the corresponding call for tender for the EPC contract.
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Originally, ONGC had requested the technical and commercial bid to be submitted on July 9th 2013, but this deadline has been postponed several times up to August 30th.
Still now, it is unclear if ONGC will proceed with current bids or re-tender the whole package as ONGC is considering significant modifications in the scope of work.
Only three bidders are reported to have returned their bid:
- Afcons from India
- Larsen & Toubro (L&T) from India
- Swiber from Singapore
Considering the risks of delay on the project, a re-tender could only be organized with a short notice for all bidders, excluding by fact all the companies not yet in competition.
Therefore and regardless ONGC final decision to go for re-bid or not, the competition for the Bassein Expansion project will be concentrated on Afcons, L&T and Swiber for a challenging execution on fast track.