The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped giant ONGC for the loss of Rs 7,995 crore due to poor planning in hiring and use of drilling rigs.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped giant ONGC for the loss of Rs 7,995 crore due to poor planning in hiring and use of drilling rigs.
“The bulk of idling time costing Rs 6,418 crore was due to factors which could have been controlled by the company,” CAG said, noting that the non-productive time or idling time of rigs ranged between 19 and 23 per cent over 2010-14.
Even more serious was CAG’s view that the company did not adhere to safety procedures and continued to do drilling/testing operations even after one anchor of its rig Sagar Vijay had snapped.
This resulted in another anchor of the rig to snap which caused drifting of the rig from its location.
Consequently, the well had to be closed and abandoned. The expenditure of Rs1,577.27 crore incurred by ONGC on drilling of the original location and drilling of a relief well by using another rig proved avoidable, CAG observed.
The CAG report was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. CAG said that the company lost out on insurance because its failure in preparing a consolidated plan for annual rig requirement, delayed rig acquisitions and hiring and deployment of rigs. It also had an inefficient repair and refurbishment policy.
It did not adhere to the repair schedule for dry dock management and major lay-up repairs of jack-up rigs which was against an efficient operational practice.
