Dhirubhai-39 KG well viable, claims company

Reliance Industries' (RIL) gas find in a new Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin block off the east coast has been assessed to be commercially viable for producing gas.

RIL today submitted a viability report for the Dhirubhai-39 discovery in block KG-DWN-2003/1, about 50 km off Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, to the oil ministry and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

A company official said the well KG-V-D3-A1 flowed 38.1 million cubic feet per day of gas and the find was later named Dhirubhai-39.

"We have stated that the discovery is commercially viable for development and an appraisal plan will be submitted within 60 days," he said.

The block, awarded to RIL in the fifth round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), is in the same region as the prolific KG-D6 block, from where it plans to start producing 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas later this year.

Reliance said that it was evaluating the commercial viability of the find in the block.

Gas discovery was made in the very first well drilled in the 3,288 sq km KG-DWN-2003/1 block. RIL holds 90 per cent interest in the block, while Hardy Exploration & Production India Inc has the balance 10 per cent.

The well KG-V-D3-A1 was drilled at a water depth of 716 metres to a total depth of 1,937 metres. A thick reservoir was encountered with gross hydrocarbon column of around 84 metres.

Subsequently, the well flowed at a rate of 38.1 million standard cubic feet per day on conventional testing. This play fairway is expected to cover a large area of the block, RIL said.