HOEC Secures New Oil and Gas Block in Mumbai Offshore Region

17 Apr 2025 , 10:40 AM

Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Ltd (HOEC) has announced the award of a new contract area under the Special Discovered Small Fields (DSF) Bid Round 2024.

The block assigned, MB/OSDSF/B15/2024, is in the Mumbai offshore basin and covers an area of around 332.4 square kilometres. Located at a water depth of approximately 40 metres, the block contains two hydrocarbon discoveries — B-15A and B-15-2 — with excellent potential for future development and exploration.

Six wells have been drilled in the awarded contract area, according to the company’s exchange filing, showing a notable high level of past exploration effort.

Test results revealed that:

• Well B-15A-1 produced a flow of around 1.66 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of natural gas and almost 1,833 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
• Well B-15-2 yielded almost 1,151 bopd and 0.91 mmscfd of gas from the Panna formation.

HOEC has a 100% participating interest in the block and is the sole operator, which allows it to make all the operations decisions and production. This fresh contract block reinforces HOEC’s foothold in the region, complementing its current asset — Block MB/OSDSF/B80/2016 — which is situated in Mumbai offshore.

HOEC’s overall offshore area now rises to more than 800 square kilometres with this addition, fortifying its upstream portfolio in India’s west coast. HOEC’s Managing Director, Ramasamy Jeevanandam, said HOEC is geared to maximize offshore operations while taking advantage of its strengths to build long-term value and growth.