Reliance, BP start 2nd deep water gas field

New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner BP Plc on Monday announced the start of production from the second set of new discoveries in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block, helping the nation augment clean fuel output.

Reliance-BP, which had commenced output from R Cluster in December last year, started production from the Satellite Cluster, the two firms said in a statement. "Satellite Cluster field comes onstream two months ahead of schedule despite Covid-19 challenges," it said.

The start of production augurs well for a nation that is looking to raise the share of natural gas in its energy basket from 6.2 per cent currently to 15 per cent by 2030, to help cut carbon emissions.

Domestic gas production of about 78 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) meets just half of the demand. Helped by output from KG-D6 and 15 mmscmd of peak production planned from the adjacent KG-D5 block of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will help domestic gas output reach 122 mmscmd in 2023-24. Reliance-BP is developing three deep-water gas developments in block KG-D6 - R Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ - which together are expected to produce around 30 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas by 2023, meeting up to 15 per cent of India's gas demand. The developments will each utilize the existing hub infrastructure in the KG-D6 block, the statement said.

Reliance is the operator of the block with a 66.67 per cent participating interest and BP holds the remaining 33.33 per cent. The Satellite Cluster is the second of the three developments to come onstream, following the startup of R Cluster in December 2020. It had originally been scheduled to start production in mid-2021. The field is located about 60 km from the existing onshore terminal at Kakinada, in Andhra Pradesh in water depths of up to 1,850 meters. While R-Cluster is expected to reach plateau gas production of about 12.9 mmscmd in 2021, Satellite Cluster will have a peak output of 6 mmscmd. MJ field will have a peak output of 12 mmscmd. "The (Satellite) field will produce gas from four reservoirs utilizing a total of five wells and is expected to reach gas production of up to 6 mmscmd. Together, the R Cluster and Satellite Cluster are expected to contribute to about 20 per cent of India's current gas production," the statement said.

The third KG D6 development, MJ, is expected to come onstream towards the latter half of 2022. Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3 — the largest among the lot — were brought into production from April 2009 and MA, the only oilfield in the block was put to production in September 2008. While the MA field stopped producing in 2019, the output from D-1 and D-3 ceased in February 2020. Other discoveries have either been surrendered or taken away by the government for not meeting timelines for beginning production.