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HEADLINE = Mumbai High: The Russian discovery is 40 years old

STRAP = It was Russian oil exploration work carried out in the 1960s that led to the discovery of Mumbai

HighIndias biggest oil and gas field.

In the 1960s as India embarked upon an industrialisation overdrive, its energy requirements rocketed.

The countrys only oil well, in Digboi, Assam, was producing a small amount of crude, even as imports

were galloping. Western energy experts were hired to look for oil in its continental shelf, but they

quickly declared India was hydrocarbon barren. In their view, the vast country and its offshore basins

were totally lacking in significant oil and gas deposits.

In stepped the Russians. From 1964-67 a Russian oil exploration team operating from the seismic

exploration vesselAkademik Arkhangelskymapped the Gulf of Khambat on the west coast. The teams

efforts led to the discovery of Indias largest oil and gas field 160 km off Mumbai. The first offshore well

was sunk in 1974.

There are two theories on how the field got its name.

N. Ramalingam writes in Sampada, (http://www.mcciapune.com/publication/Samjun13.pdf)an offshore

engineering trade magazine, that the name Bombay High was the idea of Russian geologist Kalinin.

Sam Tranum, the author of Powerless: India's Energy Shortage and Its Impact', quotes M.

Krishnamurthy, an Oil & Natural Gas Corp (then Commission) engineer, who was attached to the

Akademik Arkhangelsky.

Krishnamurthy recalls: "We found the structure and were in a dilemma over naming the structure. Thenafter some brainstorming we decided to name it 'Bombay High' as it sounded rhythmic and catchy.

Thereafter we acquired the drillship Sagar Samrat and the first well offshore was drilled in 1974.

The field was renamed Mumbai High after the city became Mumbai.

High point

The discovery of Mumbai High with subsequent other discoveries of oil and gas fields in the western

offshore area transformed the countrys energy scenario. The field reached its peak production level in

1998 with 20 million metric tonnes of oil a year. The largest platform is expected to produce 5 million

metric tonnes of oil by 2030.

The field is divided into two blocksNorth and South and has more than 551 oil wells and 33 gas wells.

Underwater, there is a tangle of more 3000 km of pipelines to carry oil, gas and water to and from the

well on the ocean floor. Currently, the field has 1,659 million metric tonnes of oil and is producing

around 12 million metric tonnes a year.

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The crude oil extracted from Bombay High is one of the sweetest (highest quality) in the world. For

instance, Bombay High crude has more than 60 per cent paraffin content while light Arabian crude has

only 25 per cent paraffin.

Flushed with its first major success, ONGC soon spread its activities spread throughout the country and

in overseas territoriesincluding Russiain subsequent decades. So far ONGC has discovered over 5billion tonnes of hydrocarbons.

US wants to drill

However, Indias greatest oil bonanza almost fell into American hands. In 1968 after the Russians had

done all the hard work, the US Administration started pressuring Indias Petroleum Ministry to lease out

Mumbai High to the American oil major Tenneco. The White House was extra diligent because President

Lyndon Johnson had interests in the Texas-based company.

Sailendra Nath Ghosh, (http://sailendranathghosh.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/reminiscences.html)the

former chief of Indias Petroleum Information Service (PIS), writes that Ashok Mehta, who was thePetroleum Minister, believed oil exploration in the sea by indigenous efforts an impossibility. Several

conservative members in Parliament and even the Planning Commission considered drilling in the sea a

gamble and a huge waste of money, which only the richest countries could afford.

ONGC explorationists too, with the exception of one deputy directorin its geophysics directorate, were

diffident, writes Ghosh. Hence Mehta drew up a text of agreement with Tenneco and sent it to the

cabinet for approval. He felt approval by the Union Cabinet would be a mere formality.

However, the earlier Oil Minister K.D. Malaviya had set an agenda for self-sufficiency, which was hard to

ignore. In 1961, while setting up the PIS, he had told his bureaucrats: The battle for economic

independence is being fought on the front of petroleum. I need your help. Take charge of this

organisation and build it the way you like. Malaviya had directed the state enterprisesONGC, Indian

Refineries Ltd and Indian Oilto share the organisations financial burden but not to interfere in PIS

work.

As the Petroleum Ministrys proposal for agreement with Tenneco reached the Prime Ministers

secretariat, Mr P.N. Haksar, Principal Secretary in the Prime Ministers secretariat, summoned Ghosh for

his opinion.

I mentioned the risk that some geophysicists had told me, says Ghosh. The lessee foreign exploration

company will come to know our sea profile. It will come to know in which intersection of latitude andlongitude, in which season, and between which hours of the day or night, a submarine can enter a

particular horizon and remain undetected for days together. This, indeed, was a grave strategic risk and

Mr Haksar was impressed.

Politicallyalso, there was a risk. We are not a small country like Libya. Our giving the lease to an

American company would be construed by the Soviet Bloc as our leaning towards its opposite side, he

said.

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As the media and scientists debated the issue, help cameagain unexpectedlybecause of Moscows

actions. Mehta, the Petroleum Minister, resigned afterdenouncing Indias silence on the Soviet Unions

intervention in Czechoslovakia. Triguna Sen was appointed Minister of Petroleum.Positive measures for

Mumbai High exploration followed soon, says Ghosh.

Underwater drilling was first practised in the shallow waters of the Tapti river. After gaining some

experience and confidence, drilling started at the Mumbai High offshore structure, leading to the oil

strike in 1974.

This was a saga of enterprise, made by ONGCs brave explorationists i.e. geoscientists (who included

geologists, geophysicists, geochemists), drillers, production and pipeline engineers, and their support

service providers, particularly the mechanical engineers and mechanics in the workshops. This bold

initiative established ONGCs reputation as an oil explorer on the global scale, says Ghosh.