RIL strikes oil at Krishna basin

Reliance Industries (RIL), which discovered hydrocarbon reserves in the four major offshore basins in India, has struck oil for the first time in the deepwaters of the Krishna basin at a depth of about 3,600 metres.

RIL's oil discovery comes after nearly two decades of exploration in the geologically complex Krishna deepwater basin, with more than 30 exploratory wells drilled by various operators "" mainly by the public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). RIL continued to explore the Krishna basin, following its success in the Godavari and Cauvery regions, where the geology is similar, said RIL sources.

"The potential commercial value and size of the discovery have to be ascertained through integration of additional data and analysis. It would take about one year to assess the size of the discovery," said an RIL spokesperson.

During the Drill Stem Testing (DST), the well produced 596 barrels of oil per day. The discovery, named as Dhirubhai-36, has been notified by the Union government and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. Oil was found in the deepwater block KG-DWN-98/1 (KG-D4), which was awarded to RIL under the first round of the National Exploratory Licensing Policy (NELP) bidding, said RIL in a press release.

RIL holds 100 per cent participating interest in KG-D4, which spans an area of 8,100 sq km. The well was located in a water depth of 565 metres and was drilled to a target depth of 3,595 metres. The well was found to have gross oil column of more than 20 metres in the complex rock-filled section of the block.

RIL, which entered the oil exploration and production (E&P) business about six years ago, has earlier discovered hydrocarbon reserves in four of the major offshore basins of Krishna-Godavari, Mahanadi, Saurashtra and Cauvery. India's largest private sector E&P player RIL currently owns about 337,000 sq km domestic acreage of exploration area, with about 86 per cent of it in the deepwater.

RIL had struck oil and gas in the Cauvery deepwater basin, also for the first time, in July this year.

A few months ago, the company also made significant hydrocarbon discoveries in the deep waters of the KG basin and in the shallow waters of the west coast in Saurashtra. RIL is also developing one of the largest gas fields in the world at KG basin, estimated to have about reserves of 11.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Crude oil was also found in one of the wells at the KG basin.