US contractor McDermott International has completed work on Reliance Industries’ Satellite Cluster project on its flagship deep-water Block KG D6 offshore India’s east coast — said to be the country's deepest pipelay job.

The project workscope included subsea pipelines and the installation of jumpers, umbilicals, in-line structures, pipelines, subsea manifolds and associated structures and the pre-commissioning of pipelines and umbilicals.

McDermott's derrick lay vessel 2000 and North Ocean 102 were used on the scope. At its peak, there were approximately 500 personnel working offshore supporting installation and pre-commissioning activities.

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"McDermott's work on the KG D6 R and Satellite Cluster projects included many firsts, including the deepest pipelay in India at 6069 feet (1850 metres) and the first piggy-back pipelay by our derrick lay vessel 2000," said Mahesh Swaminathan, senior vice president, Asia Pacific.

Cyclones and Covid-19

"Completing these scopes despite some of the obstacles we faced, including cyclones and Covid-19, is testament to our project execution expertise in complex subsea environments and demonstrates our dedication to delivering our customer's projects safely."

India’s private sector behemoth Reliance operates the KG-D6 asset with a 66.67% participating interest, while partner UK supermajor BP holds the remaining 33.33%.

The duo is developing three deep-water gas developments on Block KG D6 — R Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ – which together are expected to produce around 30 million cubic metres per day of gas by 2023, meeting up to 15% of India’s gas demand, Reliance earlier said.

Satellite Cluster, which came on stream in April, is expected to produce up to 6 MMcmd of gas.