RIL plans drilling programme in Mahanadi, KG basins

Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning an aggressive drilling programme in the Mahanadi and Krishna-Godavari (KG) basins on the east coast, which is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2007-08.

RIL has not confirmed the number of wells to be drilled in 14 new blocks out of the 29 blocks awarded to it under the various pre-NELP (confirm) and NELP rounds.

Again, some of the blocks where drilling will begin are on the west coast, near Kerala and the Konkan coast. The company is in the process of scheduling rigs for exploring these blocks for hydrocarbons.

There is a shortage of oil rigs at the moment. This means that we cannot have dedicated rigs for each exploratory block. Moreover, though conditions are generally favourable for exploration in the Mahanadi and KG basins, weather conditions in the region offer a small window period of 3-6 months for exploration," an RIL official explained.

The rigs commissioned for the project are contractual though no fresh contract has been awarded this time. The ones to be used are part of old contracts.

Talks are on between RIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for the possibility of sharing rigs. However, no conclusive decision on rigs sharing has been taken yet.

Earlier in the current quarter, RIL had completed drilling of wells KG-D6-AA1 and KG D6-Q1 in the deep water block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6). Both wells had shown prospects of high reserves of hydrocarbon.