(PTI)
Reliance Industries has pushed back the start of production from the second wave of discoveries in its eastern offshore KG-D6 block to September/October after the COVID-19 lockdown imposed unprecedented constraints in execution of the deepwater project. The company, along with its partner BP Plc of the UK, was initially targeting the start of production from the R-Series field in the Krishna Godavari block in May but pushed it back to June-end due to the lockdown.
The lockdown has further pushed the start of production to mid of 2020-21 fiscal, Reliance said in its latest annual report. Fiscal year runs from April to March and mid of the fiscal should be September or October.
In its annual report, Reliance said the key focus for 2019-20 was to monetise the about 3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of discovered resources in KG-D6 deepwater.
“Concurrent development of three deep/ultra-deepwater projects in block KG-D6 namely, R-Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ fields, is being pursued by leveraging the existing world class hub infrastructure.
“All contracts have been awarded and projects are in different stages of maturity with commissioning of the first of the three projects i.e. R Cluster, expected this year,” it said. Combined production from these three fields is expected to be 30 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) by FY2024. The output is equal to a third of India’s current natural gas production. “Up until March 2020, all projects have been ahead of schedule. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns have presented unprecedented constraints in the execution of these deepwater projects.
