Panna-Mukta oilfield

The Panna field is northwest of Mumbai, and has an area of . It is just north of the Bassein gas field and about east of the Bombay High oilfield. The Mukta field is about northwest of Mumbai, and has an area of . Average water depth is in the Panna field and in the Mukta field. As of May 1999 estimated recoverable reserves of oil were 287 million barrels. Source rock is of Panna Formation ==Ownership==

The Panna-Mukta oil field and the Tapti gas field to the north were discovered by the Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), who initially operated the fields. However, there was a dispute between the partners over operation of the field, with BG wanting to control operations and the two Indian firms wanting a more equal sharing of control. ==Controversy==

The contract was awarded during the tenure of Satish Sharma as petroleum minister. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India wrote a report that was highly critical of the contract award process. In May 1998 the CBI admitted that Y.P. Singh's case diary had indeed been lost and might have been deliberately destroyed. In September 2010 the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found that the consortium running the fields had made excessive payments to service contractors, which could have cut into the profits that the government made from the fields. ==Development and production==

The initial phase of development was from 1995 to 1999, during which the joint venture installed three wellhead platforms, drilled development wells and established facilities for processing and transport. In a subsequent phase between November 2004 and March 2007 the joint venture installed pipelines and two wellhead platforms in the Panna oilfield. As of July 2010 the field was producing about of oil per day and per day of gas. On 20 July 2010 production was halted due to a leak in the sub-sea hose near the Panna single buoy mooring. In October 2008 it was reported that British Gas was waiting for approval of a US$150 million program to construct nine in fill wells. These would be used to pump water into the reservoir to maintain pressure and improve recovery. The joint venture had started to implement a program to drill nine more production wells and install two additional platforms, with the platforms being due for commissioning in June 2009. As of 2011 BG Group was continuing to incrementally develop the fields by well intervention, infill drilling and installation of new projects such as the recently installed Panna L. ==References==