Keeping KG gas output up till 2020 a challenge, says BP

In June, Mukesh Ambani had announced investments of Rs 40,000 cr on three discoveries in the eastern offshore K-G basin

Global oil major BP said a challenge it and joint venture partner Reliance Industries face in their gas block in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin is maintaining the level of output till new productions come on stream.

The company expects to start production from its R-series field by 2020. It says present output has dropped to about six million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd), from 54 mscmd in 2010. "We are bringing in more technologies to keep it alive till the new ones begin in 2020," said Sashi Mukundan, country head of BP, addressing the CeraWeek petroleum summit, organised by IHS Markit.

In June, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani and BP Plc chief executive Bob Dudley had announced investments worth Rs 40,000 crore on three discoveries in the eastern offshore K-G basin, expected to increase the gas output by 30-35 mscmd.

"Of the three projects, R-series is in execution phase. We expect it to be on stream by 2020. For the other two fields, we are submitting the field development plans to the government before the end of this year," said Lamar McKay, deputy group chief executive at BP.
 

The R-series (D34) project is a dry gas development in water depths of more than 2,000 metres, about 70 km offshore. The R-series fields will be developed as a sub-sea tie-back to the existing control and riser platform off the existing block, KG-D6. The project is expected to produce up to 12 million cubic metres (425 mn cubic ft) of gas a day, coming on stream in 2020.

Mckay indicated BP would be open to investing on oil and gas blocks in the ongoing open acreage licensing policy bidding rounds for hydrocarbon assets.