Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced on Thursday that it has made a gas and condensate discovery in the deepwater Cauvery-Palar basin.
The discovery was made in the very first well drilled in a block of about 8,600 sq km that was awarded to RIL under the bidding round of NELP-III, the company said.
RIL currently holds 100 per cent participating interest in this block.
This is one of the 23 exploration blocks where BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd would have a 30 per cent participating interest subject to Government approval. RIL is also planning to carry out further appraisal activity to assess the extent of these reservoirs, said a statement from the company.
Last year, RIL and BP announced a strategic partnership between the two companies.
The partnership across the full value chain comprises BP taking a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the producing KG-D6 block. BP will pay RIL $7.2 billion, for the interests to be acquired in the 23 production sharing contracts.
This discovery has been named ‘Dhirubhai-53' has been notified to the Government and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.
During testing the well produced 37 million standard cubic feet of gas and 1100 barrels of condensate per day, said the statement.