RIL to produce 23 mmscmd from gas finds in KG-D6: Oil Min

The Ministry said 10 mmscmd gas will come from four satellite fields of D-2, D-6, D-19 and D-22 and another 13 mmscmd from D-34 discovery

Reliance Industries will produce 23 million standard cubic meters per day of more gas from five discoveries in the flagging KG-D6 block by 2016-17, the Oil Ministry said in its latest annual report.

The Ministry said 10 mmscmd gas will come from four satellite fields of D-2, D-6, D-19 and D-22 in the eastern offshore Krishna Godavari basin block KG-D6 and another 13 mmscmd from D-34 discovery.

RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources currently produce natural gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) and oil and gas from MA1 field in the KG-D6 block. Gas output from them averaged 11.5 mmscmd in January-March quarter.

The Ministry said of the 254 blocks awarded for exploration of oil and gas under nine rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) since 1999, only 96 are operational with the rest being relinquished for either poor prospectivity or operational difficulty.

"So far a total of 135 hydrocarbon discoveries (46 crude oil and 89 natural gas) have been made under the NELP regime in 46 blocks," the annual report for 2014-15 said.

The most number of discoveries, 51 are by RIL. These are made up 12 oil discoveries and 39 gas finds. Its KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block alone has 19 oil and gas finds.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) made 45 discoveries (14 oil and 31 gas).

"Currently 22 NELP hydrocarbon discoveries are under development," the ministry said detailing expected output.

While 23 mmscmd was listed as output from RIL's five finds in KG-D6 block, it said Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) is to produce 1 mmscmd initially from its Deendayal block KG-OSN-2003/1 in KG basin and a peak of 5 mmscmd by 2016-17.

The Ministry said all of the USD 14.496 billion investment committed in nine rounds of NELP have come in. Besides, USD 9.424 billion investment has come in as expense for developing oil and gas finds, the most USD 7.76 billion in NELP-1. Almost all of the development expense in NELP-1 was in KG-D6 block.

RIL's D-34 or R-Series discovery in KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block is estimated to hold 2.2 trillion cubic feet of reserves and USD 3.18 billion is being spent on bringing it to production.

The four satellite gas discoveries of D-2, 6, 19 and 22 hold 617 billion cubic feet of reserves. The partners are investing USD 1.529 billion in developing the fields.

RIL-BP also have other satellite fields of D-29, 30, 31 as well as the significant MJ-1 field for which field development plans detailing investment and likely production have so far not been firmed up.