Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), the diversified infrastructure company, has handed over an indigenously built oil and gas drilling rig to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Gujarat on Thursday. This is part of a ₹6,000-crore tender bagged by MEIL in 2019 to supply 47 rigs to the ONGC’s order of 47 rigs comprising 20 workover rigs and 27 land drilling rigs.
By March next, the company is set to deliver 23 rigs to the ONGC with 14 now in transportation to locations across India. As per the arrangement, the MEIL will manufacture and deliver the rigs to ONGC assets in Assam (Shib Sagar, Jorhat), Andhra Pradesh (Rajamahendravaram), Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Ankleshwar, Mehsana and Cambay), Agartala (Tripura) and Tamil Nadu (Karaikal).
After getting a contract from the ONGC to manufacture 47 rigs, the company had bought out an Italian company, Drill Mac, in 2019. “These automated rigs are using advanced hydraulic technology acquired from the takeover of Drill Mac,” the MEIL officials said at the site while handing over the rig to ONGC oil field near Gandhinagar on Thursday.
“Until recently, India was mostly dependent on oil and fuel extraction rigs imports, but MEIL has significantly boosted domestic rig manufacturing capacity,” said N. Krishna Kumar, Head-Oil Rigs Division of MEIL.
“The new rig developed with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in India drills oil wells faster and operates with minimal power. With a capacity of 1,500 HP, the rig can easily drill up to 4,000 metres. The rig is expected to be operational for 40 years,” a MEIL statement said.
