17 January 2005 - 13:25
  • News ID: 42784
RIL's AP Gas Field Production From 2008

New Delhi - RIL will begin natural gas production from its Krishna Godavari deep sea gas field in the Bay of Bengal from March 2008 as against the earlier schedule of 2006-07.

"There has been delay in getting government approval for laying of the 1400-km Kakinada-Ahmedabad pipeline to evacuate the gas. This has delayed our production plans," a top company official said on the sidelines of the Petrotech conference. Reliance, which received the right of use (RoU) for the pipeline in May 2001, was to begin gas supplies from May 2007. Its principal customer, state-run NTPC, had scheduled sourcing of 12 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from it in 2007 for its Kawas and Gandhar power plants. "We could not develop the pipeline since the draft gas policy permitting private sector pipelines was initiated only in September 2003 and is yet to be finalised," he said. Petroleum Ministry, he said, has cleared only 700-km of the pipeline and approval for the balance was still pending. Reliance plans to invest $ 2.39 billion in developing Dhirubhai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 gas fields to produce 40 mmscmd of gas. The company has till date made 12 Gas finds in deep- sea block KG-DWN-98/3 (also known as KG-D6) and only the first three discoveries - Dhirubhai 1, 2 and 3 have been declared commercial. Of these, Reliance proposes to develop Dhirubhai 1 and 3 in the first phase of development. Reliance will produce 40 million standard cubic meters per day for 7.5 years from Dhirubhai 1 and 3 from a total of 34 development wells, the company official said. First gas will land in March 2008 as against August 2007 at a gas processing facility near Kakinada through a 35-km, 24-inch diameter pipeline. Reliance, as the operator of the block, holds 90 per cent interest and Niko Resources of Canada the remaining 10 per cent. "The Original Gas-In-Place (OGIP) for Dhirubhai 1 and 3 as per RIL's in-house studies is estimated to be 8.3 trillion cubic feet," he said. However, international consultants D&M, commissioned by Reliance to independently verify the reserves, have put the figure at 6.17 trillion cubic feet. The proposed initial development covers only 4.5 per cent of the total block area (7645 sq km). "Considerable upside potential exists in the form of already known discoveries such as Dhirubhai 2, 4, 5 and 6 and other possible discoveries from the large area of the block yet unexplored." "The initial development of Dhirubhai 1 and 3 gas fields will cater to the production rate of 40 million standard cubic meters per day. However, the facilities shall be modular in design so as to augment the capacity to 80 mmscmd," he said. The first gas from the block will be sold to National Thermal Power Corp's Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat, for which a pipeline is proposed to be laid from Kakinada to Ahmedabad. PIN//Sify
News ID 42784

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