Three weeks after anticipating a drop in Reliance Industries’ Krishna Godavari (KG)-D6 block, Niko Resources, its 10 per cent partner in the block, said an integrated development plan for commercialisation of approximately three trillion cubic feet of additional discovered gas would be submitted to the Indian government by October.
This, the Canadian company said on its website, would “add approximately one billion cubic feet/day of additional new production”.
RIL had said in January it would begin work on the development of four satellite fields — D-2, D-6, D-19 and D-22 — in India’s largest gas field, KG-D6. It had said it would start engineering surveys soon. The approved capital expenditure of $1.529 billion (Rs 7,700 crore) could be revised upwards or downwards by 10 per cent, depending on actual costs. It is estimated the four fields would be able to produce 10 million cubic metres of gas a day by 2016.
In a letter to Petroleum Secretary G C Chaturvedi last month, RIL Executive Director P M S Prasad sought the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas’ intervention in the matter of granting necessary approvals. He also sought clearance for R-series and other satellite discoveries on an urgent basis.
Prasad said the company proposed to carry out geophysical and geotechnical surveys, concept and validation, front-end engineering, design for R-series and other satellite fields, along with approved optimised field development plan.
RIL plans to carry out the engineering work holistically, since all the discoveries are proposed to be integrated with the existing infrastructure.
The company said in the letter it had submitted proposals for declaration of commerciality in respect to five gas discoveries at — D29, D30 & D31 in KG-D6 block and D32 and D40 in NEC 25 — in early 2010 for review by the managing committee, but the review was pending before the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
The DGH, RIL said, had a view that the testing methodology, modular dynamic testing, adopted for these five discoveries was not acceptable. Accordingly, it has been insisting on conventional testing, drill stem testing.
RIL said this was not a methodology prescribed in the production sharing contract. “It is purely the DGH’s view that does not conform to global industry practice. Our partner, British Petroleum, believes DGH's insistence has no techno-commercial merit and is contrary to global norms.”
