OREANDA-NEWS. February 27, 2012. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has secured a major contract for supply of onshore drilling rigs from India’s premier upstream oil company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

Valued at over Rs.7,740 Million, the order is a testimony to the customer’s confidence in BHEL’s capabilities and technological excellence. The order envisages manufacture and supply of 6 numbers state-of-the-art 2000 HP onshore drilling rigs with AC drives.

Significantly, ONGC has gone in for acquisition of new rigs after a gap of over 18 years and has opted for rigs with high efficency AC drives in line with the latest trends worldwide. Hitherto, ONGC has procured rigs with AC SCR technology where the drawworks and mud pumps, etc. are powered with DC drives. Rig operation with AC drives is more efficient than DC drives due to the high power factor of AC motors.

BHEL has established facilities and a dedicated group of expert engineers for manufacture, refurbishment and upgradation of onshore drilling rigs/rig equipment. For the above contract, the mechanical equipment will be manufactured by BHEL’s Hyderabad plant, while the electrics will be manufactured by the company’s Bhopal plant.

BHEL is the leading and only manufacturer of onland drilling rigs in the country, having supplied 84 rigs so far. Of these, 71 rigs have been supplied to ONGC and 13 to Oil India Limited (OIL). For ONGC, BHEL has also successfully carried out refurbishment and upgradation of 33 onshore drilling rigs, thereby enhancing the life of these aging rigs. The company is presently in the process of completing refurbishment and upgradation work of 7 more rigs of ONGC.

BHEL is one of the leading engineering and manufacturing organisations in the world, supplying products and systems to core sectors viz. power generation, transmission & distribution, transportation, defence and industries like metallurgical, petrochemicals, refinery, fertilizers, paper, cement, etc., besides oil exploration & production.