Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its partners BP and NIKO announced the discovery of major gas and condensate reserves in the KG D6 block off the eastern coast on Friday. This is possibly the biggest find in the declining eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
Considering that RIL-BP did not put any reserves, this new discovery is perhaps the largest in the country. The discovery, which was notified to the Government of India (GoI) and the block’s management committee, has been named D-55. It is likely to be added to the hydrocarbon resources in the KG D6 block. Appraisal will now instigate to define the scale and quality of the field in a better way.
RIL and BP encountered 155 metres of gas pay zone in the first exploration well that was drilled for more than five years on the block. It was drilled two kilometres beneath the D1&D3 fields.
According to RIL-BP, “The KGD6-MJ1 well was drilled in a water depth of 1,024 metres – and to a total depth of 4,509 metres (4.5 kilometres below seabed)”
This was done in order to explore the potential of a Mesozoic Synrift Clastic reservoir that was lying 2,000 metres underneath the D1-D3 gas fields.
This declaration happened right when BP’s high-ranking officials are in India to conduct their first board meeting after BP acquired 30% in RIL’s 21 oil and gas blocks in a $7.2 billion deal.
Mike Daly, executive vice president exploration at BP, said “The discovery demonstrates the effective technical co-operation between the partners, allowing us to make a new and significant discovery within KG D6. It follows an 18 month drilling time-out and detailed geoscience work that has re-focused our India exploration program and delivered this early success”.
“The discovery demonstrates the effective technical co-operation between the partners, allowing us to make a new and significant discovery within KG-D6,” Daly said.
PMS Prasad, Executive Director, Reliance Industries Limited, stated: “This is a successful outcome of the combined exploration efforts of the Joint Venture partners with the active support of the GoI. We shall embark on the appraisal program in the next few months in order to evaluate the options for developing this discovery.”
Edward Sampson, CEO of Niko Resources, said "We congratulate our partners and the Government of India as co-operation in an event like this shows what good can be created for the energy sector and most importantly, for the pe ople of India."
RIL operates KG-D6 with 60% equity while BP has a 30% shares; the remaining 10% is handled by NIKO.
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