RIL-BP to invest $1.4bn to develop satellite gas fields

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries (RIL), along with partner BP Plc, has submitted a $1.4-billion plan to produce 7 million cubic metres a day of natural gas from KG-D6 deep-sea fields in the Bay of Bengal.
The company will develop the “satellite fields” — D2, D6, D19 and D22 —in the gas-rich block along with two nearby gas fields D29 and D30, according to the field development plan submitted to the government.

These fields have reserves of 650 billion cubic feet in water depths of 1,700-1,900 metres and located within 25 km of the existing infrastructure that was built to pump gas from the D1 and D3 fields that have been producing natural gas, with declining output.

Last June, RIL and BP Plc had announced a Rs 40,000-crore investment over the next three to four years to start producing natural gas from the “R Cluster” and the “satellite fields” which hold 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The company has already started tendering and awarding contracts to develop the “R Cluster”.

The satellite fields, for which development plan has been submitted, have relatively small and scattered reserves, which requires an integrated development and maximum utilisation of existing infrastructure in the block in the Krishna-Godavari Basin.

The fields, when developed, will use the existing facilities to pump gas to the onshore terminal. The gas would then be transported to customers using the east-west pipeline.

RIL’s KG-D6 fields are again emerging as major sources of natural gas for the country after a rough patch in which production declined and the company was mired in bitter disputes with the oil ministry over actions taken by the previous government.

Many of these disputes, which led to arbitration, have now been resolved and the company is again investing heavily in the oil and gas exploration sector.