MEIL commissions world's most advanced oil rig at ONGC well in Andhra

Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has manufactured, delivered and commissioned world's biggest advanced oil rig at Oil and Natural Gas Commission's gas exploration site.

The 2,000-HP land drilling rig equipped with robotic arm is the first of its kind to be used for on land drilling in the world, MEIL officials said while demonstrating the technology to a group of journalists at the oil well on Tuesday.

The oil well is part of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's Rajahmundry asset covering oil and gas prospects in the East and West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh.

An oil rig is a structure with equipment for drilling an oil well.


This is a state-of-the-art indigenous oil rig and can drill up to 6,000 metres (6 km) deep into the earth, said K. Satyanarayana, technical head, oil rigs, MEIL.

With the latest and best in class features in the world, it can give a performance equal to a 3,000-HP traditional rig.

This oil rig has been specifically designed for high pressure area. It can work in 220 degree Celsius temperature and 15,000 PSI (pound-force per square inch) well pressures.


Conventional rigs can handle only 7,500 PSI well pressure.

The rig has the world's best and most advanced hydraulic technology features. "As the energy prices soar, the advanced rigs are very crucial for Indian energy sector to drill the oil and gas wells faster and increase the oil and gas production for domestic use. MEIL is the first private player in India in manufacturing highly efficient oil drilling rigs with indigenous technology under the 'Make in India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiatives," Satyanarayana said.

This rig, which is estimated to have cost Rs 200 crore, is part of Rs 6,000 crore order MEIL had won from ONGC for supply of 47 rigs -- 27 land drilling rigs and 20 workover rigs.


A workover rig is a specially designed rig to take out or insert tubing into a well.

The MEIL has supplied 10 land drilling rigs to ONGC. While three of them are already operational, other seven rigs are in final stage of installation and commissioning and these rigs will be operational in 4-5 weeks across various onshore ONGC Fields.

The MEIL will be manufacturing and supplying all the rigs to the ONGC assets in Assam (Sibsagar, Jorahat), Andhra Pradesh (Rajahmundry), Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Ankaleshwar, Mehasana and Cambay), Tripura (Agartala) and Tamil Nadu (Karaikal).


The group has so far supplied first lot of five workover rigs to Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Ankleshwar, Agartala and Shibsagar ONGC fields. They are ready to be operational. The second lot of 5 rigs are also under advanced stage of manufacturing.

The officials said despite the impact Covid-19 had on the manufacturing, MEIL is committed to complete the project with its expertise, dedication and hard work. The problem of getting components from global suppliers is still persisting, however, the supply chain of the industry is slowly recovering which is helping in the timely delivery of the rigs, they said.

"As the Covid-19 is in endemic stage, we have expedited the manufacturing of rigs and their deliveries as promised," Satyanarayana said.


He said, most of the components built indigenously by MEIL along with its sister concerns including its Italian subsidiary Drillmec SpA.

MEIL, the only private player in India to manufacture oil rigs, already has orders worth $2 billion on hands. These include $550 million order from Mexico to supply 5 rigs.

MEIL, which aims to emerge as a global player in energy sector, both upstream and downstream, is setting up oil drilling rig manufacturing hub in Hyderabad.

In January this year, Drillmec SpA, a subsidiary of MEIL, signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Telangana for setting up its global manufacturing hub in Hyderabad with an investment of $200 million.

The hub includes manufacturing, research and development, and a Centre of Excellence to impart cutting-edge training. - IANS