 "KG-D6 row: Govt slaps Rs 1700-cr penalty on RIL, BP")
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields have seen production plummet to the lowest level of 4.9 mmscmd in the third quarter of the ongoing fiscal.
Natural gas production from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) gas fields as well as MA field totalled 4.9 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), RIL said in an investor presentation post-October-December quarterly earnings.
The output came from seven wells on D1&D3 fields and three wells on MA oil and gas field, the company said in the presentation, reasoning the fall to natural decline and ingress of water and sand in the wells.
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The production compared with 5.4 mmscmd of gas and 2,073 bpd of oil in the second quarter of the current fiscal and 7.5 mmscmd and 3,329 bpd oil in Q3 of the previous fiscal.
Natural gas and oil production have been dropping every quarter.
RIL and its partner BP plc had in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal produced 6.4 mmscmd of gas, which was lower than 7.4 mmscmd in the preceding quarter.
Natural gas production had totalling 11.4 mmscmd in the April-June quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal, which dropped to 9.7 mmscmd by the time the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2016.
It further dipped to 8.7 mmscmd in the April-June 2016-17 fiscal, according to investor presentations made after quarterly earnings.
The company has been forced to shut 11 out of the 18 wells on D1&D3 fields due to high volumes of water and sand seeping in, which affected production.
The 4.9 mmscmd gas output is the lowest level since production began in April 2009.
RIL has so far drilled 22 wells on D1 and D3 fields but had put only 18 on production.
KG-D6 fields, which began production in April 2009, had hit a peak of 69.43 mmscmd in March 2010 before water and sand ingress shut down of wells after wells.
This peak output comprised 66.35 mmscmd from D1 and D3, the largest of the 18 gas discoveries on the KG-D6 block, and 3.07 mmscmd from MA field, the only oil discovery on the block.
Besides the fall in output from D1 and D3, gas production from MA field, which had hit a peak of 6.78 mmscmd in January 2012, too has dropped.
The report said the MA field produced about 6,235 barrels per day of oil during the week ended April 7.
The company has so far made 18 gas and one oil discovery in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin block in Bay of Bengal.
While the lone oil find, MA went on stream in September 2008, largest among the gas finds, D1 and D3 were put on production in April 2009.
