An offshore asset has two lives.
The first begins with discovery.
The second begins when production stops.
About 95–150 km off India’s west coast, in the Arabian Sea, lie Panna–Mukta and Mid & South Tapti: separate developments in the Mumbai Offshore Basin.
They are often spoken about together because they were operated by the same consortium: ONGC 40%, Reliance 30% and BG/Shell 30%.
- Phase 1 | Discovery → PSC: 1976–1984
The story began long before the production-sharing contracts.
Panna was discovered in 1976. Panna–Mukta and Tapti were developed under PSCs awarded in February 1994 for 25 years.
The JV structure was finalised in December 1994. In 2002, BG acquired Enron’s 30% interest for US$350 million; Shell later inherited the stake.
- Phase 2 | Development and first production: 1995–1999
The first phase built 3 wellhead platforms, development wells, processing facilities, subsea flowlines, export pipelines, an SBM for crude export and gas export to Hazira.
- Tapti first production -1997
- Panna–Mukta first production -1998
By 1999, Panna–Mukta produced about 27,000 BOPD and 71 MMscfd gas. Its processing platform was designed for 45,000 BOPD, 90 MMscfd and 75 personnel.
- Phase 3 | Expansion and production scale: 2004–2012
Between 2004–2007, Panna added pipelines and 2 more wellhead platforms.
By 2008: about 40,000 BOPD and 190 MMscfd gas.
At peak in 2007–08, Panna–Mukta contributed nearly 6% of India’s oil production and almost 7% of its gas production.
By December 2019: 211 million barrels of oil and 1.25 Tcf of gas produced.
- Phase 4 | Mature-field reality
On 20 July 2010, a subsea hose leak and anchor-chain failure at Panna’s SBM stopped production for roughly 3 months.
The reservoir remained underground. The constraint was the marine export system.
- Phase 5 | Cessation and decommissioning
Tapti ceased production in 2016. The PMT JV began retiring residual facilities, including 5 unmanned platforms and in-field pipelines.
Panna–Mukta followed on 21 December 2019, at PSC expiry.
End-of-life work includes P&A, hydrocarbon isolation, de-inventory, removal of topsides/jackets, pipeline retirement, waste management and seabed verification.
- Phase 6 | India’s offshore retirement test
Tapti was part of what the JV called India’s first offshore Decommissioning & Site Restoration project.
As at 31 March 2025, Reliance recorded a ₹1,767 crore provision for Tapti, KG-D6 and CBM assets collectively.
The last barrel does not end the asset story.
It begins its final engineering responsibility.
