OilMin okays RIL's KG-D6 survey plan
RIL-BP combine feel survey of all the discoveries together will not just save on time but also cost
Side-stepping objections of upstream regulator DGH, the Oil Ministry has agreed to Reliance Industries' (RIL) plans to survey potential of all the gas discoveries made in the KG-D6 instead of a piecemeal approach.
RIL and its partner BP Plc of UK had proposed to undertake concept validation and Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for all the 16 finds surrounding the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block.
But Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had till now held that pre-development activities (FEED and concept validation) can be undertaken only for the four satellite gas discoveries - D-2, 6, 19 and 22 whose Optimized Field Development Plan (OFDP) had been approved in January.
Sources said RIL-BP combine felt survey of all the discoveries together would not just save on time but also on cost and help in accelerated development of the untapped resources to reverse the falling gas production from KG-D6.
Oil Secretary GC Chaturvedi saw logic in the argument at a meeting with RIL-BP officials where his ministry's Joint Secretary (Exploration) A Giridhar and DGH Director General SK Srivastava were also present.
Considering that weather in Bay of Bengal permits such surveys only in pre-monsoon months, the ministry felt RIL-BP should be given a go-ahead.
A block oversight panel, called the Management Committee (MC) is likely to meet in next few days to approve about USD 30 million of investment that would go into the survey. RIL-BP have proposed that the expenditure they make in the survey would be adjusted in the integrated field development plan for all the discoveries they would be submitting to the authorities by October this year.
The MC is chaired by Srivastava and includes oil ministry officials and representatives of RIL, BP and Niko Resources of Canada, the third partner in KG-D6.
Sources said RIL-BP are working on an integrated and capital efficient plan for block development, involving production from all the 18 gas discoveries in KG-D6.
They projected first gas from R-Series, the third largest gas find in KG-D6 block, by 2015 and production from satellite fields by 2016 subject to timely regulatory approvals.