Reliance Industries and its partners in the KG-D6 block — BP Plc and Niko Resources — have received Government approval to invest $4 billion in the R-Series gas-field in the block.
R-series is a cluster of four discoveries in the block, of which, D-34 has been declared commercially viable. The block management committee, at its meeting here on Thursday, approved the investments for D-34, an official privy to the development said.
The earlier investment of $3.18 billion has been revised to $4 billion as input costs have gone up, the official told
Though the rate of production is not yet known, indications are that it could be close to the combined current production from the block — 13 mmscmd (million standard cubic metre a day) of gas. The partners plan to quickly bring this discovery to production to help reverse the decline in output.
Due to a technical snag, the largest producing fields in the block (D-1 and D-3) reported a significant decline in output after hitting a peak of 61 mmscmd in 2010. RIL has so far made 19 gas discoveries and one oil find in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3, the largest gas-fields, were brought to production in 2009 while the MA oilfield began pumping crude in September 2008.
On August 23, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Panabaaka Lakshmi, informed the Lok Sabha that to increase output from the D-6 block, the contractor (RIL) has been asked to drill, complete and connect more wells and undertake appropriate remedial measures to revive the sick wells in the D-1, D-3 and MA fields.
The Minister also said the revised development plan for the MA field and the optimised field development plan of another four discoveries — D-2, D-6, D-19 and D-22 — have been approved.
The gas production from the D-1 and D-3 fields has been much lower than the rates approved in the field development plan, even as facilities for producing 80 mmscmd have been set up, the Minister said.