Mozambique gas discovery around 10 Tcf: Videocon

Videocon Industries and state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation today said the natural gas discovery they made off Mozambique may hold at least 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of reserves, almost the same size as Reliance Industries' world class K-G basin gas find.

US-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp, the operator of the Area-1 in Rovuma basin off Mozambique where the two Indian firms are minority partners, encountered "excellent quality" 73 net metres of natural gas pay at the Camarao exploration well.

The operator carried out appraisal of the discovery and has confirmed that the discovery is connected to previously announced Windjammer and Lagosta discoveries.

"In addition, the Camarao well discovered approximately 43 net metres of natural gas pay in shallower Miocene and Oligocene sand packages not encountered in previous wells," the Indian firms said in separate statements.

Bharat PetroResources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL, and Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Videocon Industries, hold 10% stake each in Area-1.

"The operator, Anadarko, informed that the results of the activities to date in this frontier basin provide high confidence that the Windjammer, Barquentine, Lagosta and Camarao complex holds at least 10 Tcf of recvoerable natural gas resources," the statements said.

Anadarko, which holds 36.5% interest in the block, plans to put up plants to liquify the gas (liquefied natural gas or LNG) so that it can be shipped to consumption centres in cyrogenic ships. The two LNG trains will have a capacity to produce 5 million tonnes of liquid fuel each.

Reliance had last year produced over 60 million standard cubic metres per day from its K-G D6 gas discoveries before technical problems led to drop in output. The output is enough to produce about 15 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

Anadarko is "optimistic that the current estimates will increase, as still significant exploration and appraisal work is ahead, including the evaluation of two newly acquired 3D seismic datasets and expanded prospect opportunities".

It is mobilising a second deepwater drillship to accelerate the campaign comprising an extensive reservoir testing programme including the drill stem test of the Camarao discovery well and drilling of further exploration/appraisal wells.

Cove Energy Mozambique Rovuma Offshore holds 8.5% interest in the block and Mitsui E&P Miozambique another 20%. The balance 15% is with Empressa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (EIH), the national oil company of Mozambique.