14-year production hiatus ends as oil flows into 1998-built FPSO

Following the implementation of a multi-phase revised field development plan (FDP), a 27-year-old floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel has enabled the restart of hydrocarbon production at an oil project off the coast of India, which was offline since July 2011.

The resumption of production from the offshore PY-3 field in the Cauvery Basin on the east coast of India came on May 23, 2025. The production at this field, which was originally brought on stream in 1997, went offline in July 2011. Afterward, a multi-phase revised FDP was undertaken to revive production.

A joint venture (JV), consisting of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hardy Exploration & Production, and Invenire Petrodyne, which owns the asset, has confirmed the completion of Phase I of the revised FDP, entailing integrity assessment, conditioning, and activation of the subsea well PD3SA; installation of subsea infrastructure; and hook-up to the FPSO Svetah Venetia, formerly Petrojarl Varg.

The 1998-built FPSO is being used to process and separate oil, gas, and water, with the produced oil stored on the unit and offloaded to shuttle tankers for transport to refineries. The recommencement of production after a 14-year shut-in is said to mark yet another pioneering achievement.

Manish Maheshwari, Chairman of Invenire Energy, and Arunangshu Sarkar, Director of Strategy & Corporate Affairs at ONGC, expressed their appreciation to India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) for their support, guidance, and encouragement, deemed instrumental in achieving this milestone.

Maheshwari claims that this marks a significant step in Invenire’s operational journey and reaffirms the JV’s commitment to contributing to India’s energy security. ONGC, which discovered seven of India’s eight producing basins, accounts for 63% of India’s oil and natural gas production while overseeing seven non-operated joint ventures, including the PY-3 field.

Hardy Exploration & Production, a company of the Invenire Energy Group, is the operator of the field with an effective 22.79% participating interest, while ONGC holds a 50.63% effective participating interest, and Invenire Petrodyne the remaining 26.58%.

Furthermore, Phase II of the FDP will encapsulate the drilling of additional wells and the application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to boost output from the PY-3 field, which yields light, sweet crude oil.