Niko Resources Ltd, a partner in Reliance Industries-operated D-6 block, will submit an integrated development plan for commercialising additional three trillion cubic ft of gas by October.

This, according to Niko, will add about one billion cubic ft a day or 30 mmscmd into current gas production. The producing fields (D-1, D-3 and MA) in the block are flowing 35 mmscmd of gas.

So far, five gas fields have been discovered in the block. Reliance and its partners have been criticised severely for their inability to check falling output from the gas fields.

According to sources, the plan is for development of four satellite fields, R-series finds (D-29, D-30, D-31), four more satellite fields as well as D-34 in the block. This will maximise use of the infrastructure to produce balance of discoveries from the block and result in a saving of about $1 billion, the sources said.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has rejected the contractor's contention that geological complexities stopped it from firming up appropriate drilling locations in the D-6 block. However, the two — the DGH and the contractor — have been working jointly to increase output.

The reasons for lower output from the D-1 and D-3 gas-producing fields in the block, according to the DGH, may be because fewer development wells (or producing wells) were drilled as compared with what was envisaged by the block-management-committee-approved development plan.

> richam@thehindu.co.in

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