(FE)
Reliance Industries (RIL) has been asked by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to relinquish two deep-sea satellite gas discoveries—D6 and D19—in the KG-D6 block, off India’s east coast after the company told the regulator that it had no immediate plan to develop these fields. According to two people familiar with the development, the company, which had submitted a combined field development plan (FDP) for four discoveries namely D2, D6, D19 and D22, has now said while it would develop two of these discoveries — D2 and D 22 — straightaway, investments in the other two fields would be contingent on the success in the first set of fields. “The managing committee (of the DGH) therefore asked the company to surrender D6 and D19 discoveries,” one of the sources said.
RIL is the operator of the KG-D6 block with a 60% interest while BP has a 30% stake. The remaining 10% is held by Niko. The companies produce around 7-8 million standard cubic metres of gas per day at present. Emails sent to RIL and BP on April 5 for this story remained unanswered. RIL and BP in June last year had announced an investment of Rs 40,000 crore to reverse the falling production at the KG-D6 block. Apart from the four deep-sea satellite fields mentioned above, which were to be developed together, D29 and D30 finds along with R-Series and MJ gas discoveries were to be developed through these investments. In 2012, the government approved a $1.5-billion plan for the four satellite fields with an estimated reserve of 617 billion cubic feet, with an eight-year production plan with daily output of 10.36 million standard cubic meters. The FDPs were to be submitted by 2016-17.
