The Ruby floating production, storage and offloading vessel destined for the Reliance Industries-operated deep-water MJ gas condensate development offshore India has been involved in a collision with an accommodating barge, causing minor damage to the FPSO.
Indian private sector giant Reliance confirmed the incident to Upstream on Friday and noted that “there was no personnel injury and there is no impact on the overall project schedule and commissioning” for the Krishna Godavari basin field development.
“Due to rough weather, the gangway from the accommodation barge Nor Goliath got lifted and made contact with the staircase on the FPSO causing minor damage to the stairs,” a Reliance spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the Nor Goliath “pulled away along with the gangway”, and the gangway was inspected after being secured back on the barge.
The newbuild FPSO was at the Kakinada anchorage when its stern hit and severely damaged the Nor Goliath’s “walk to work” gangway, Petrowatch, India’s leading market intelligence for the oil industry reported on Thursday.
Commissioning schedule
While Reliance noted that the incident is unlikely to have an adverse impact on the project’s commissioning schedule, the Petrowatch report said a delay of two weeks could be expected.
Petrowatch claimed that “the 25,812-tonne Nor Goliath was doing one more trial run of fixing the gangway to the FPSO” when the incident occurred.
Although firmly anchored, the Ruby kept heaving and rolling as the swell rose.
Eventually, the FPSO turned around and her stern hit Nor Goliath’s gangway, which had been extended, the report claimed.
The Ruby suffered minor damages, but half of Nor Goliath’s gangway broke off and fell into the sea, leaving the other half hanging, the report added.
The damaged portion of the gangway is said to be lying underwater and will have to be replaced.
One industry source pointed out that the replacement of the gangway might take some time, which might further impact the project’s schedule.
The Nor Goliath was chartered from Mumbai-based Bhambani Shipping.
Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said earlier that the MJ field is likely to be commissioned by the end of this year, helping the KG-D6 block in which it is located increase its “contribution to nearly 30% of India’s gas production”.
Ruby FPSO
The Ruby FPSO set sail for the MJ field from South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries yard last month, Upstream reported.
The double-hulled vessel has a crude production capacity of 60,000 barrels per day of liquids and about 12.7 million cubic metres per day of gas, Upstream understands.
It is expected to have a condensate production capacity of 30,000 bpd and a water-handling capacity of at least 20,000 bpd, with the potential for the latter to be increased.
The MJ project is one of three projects being targeted by Reliance and BP in a $5 billion drive to boost gas production from the KG-D6 block, with the R-Cluster and Satellite Cluster schemes having already been brought on stream.
Combined gas output from R-Cluster and Satellite Cluster stood at more than 19 MMcmd during this year’s April–June financial quarter, according to Reliance.
Located in water depths between 600 and 1200 metres, the MJ development includes seven production wells to be linked to the FPSO via a pair of subsea drill centres.
MJ’s reservoirs are about 2000 metres below the producing D1-D3 gas fields and the development is expected to be the third largest on the block.
Reliance holds a 66.67% operating interest in KG-D6, with BP holding the remaining 33.33%.
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