Reliance Industries will pump 89 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas from its prolific D6 block in eastern offshore Krishna Godavari basin by 2010 to almost double availability of gas in the country.
Gas production from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields, the first two of the 18 discoveries in Block KG-DWN-98/3 or D6 off the Andhra coast that the company is putting to production, will start flowing in first quarter of 2009 calendar year, Reliance President and CEO (Oil and Gas) P M S Prasad said here.
"From these two fields, gas production will reach 80 mmscmd in next 6-8 quarters," he said. Another 9 mmscmd gas would be produced from the MA oil field in the same block.
Reliance is investing $5.2 billion in developing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 discoveries that will start producing 15-20 mmscmd gas in Q1 2009 and 40 mmscmd by mid-2009.
This level of investment would give peak output for 2-3 years and so the firm would invest another $3.5 billion to keep output from the two fields at plateau for 7-8 years.
"The additional investment will be for drilling more wells and putting up a compression platform needed to sustain peak output of 80 mmscmd," Prasad said. "The life of the field is 10-12 years of which plateau would last 7-8 years."
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The firm has submitted development plan for eight other fields adjoining Dhirubhai-1 and 3, to the oil regulator for approval. The fields would produce an additional 25 mmscmd.
Reliance last week started producing oil from the MA field and output is expected to reach 20,000 barrels per day in one month from current 5,500 bpd. Gas flowing along with the oil is currently being re-injected into the wells and this gas would flow together with Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas.
Peak oil output of 40,000 bpd from MA would be achieved in 6-8 quarters, Prasad said.