NEW DELHI: Oil to telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to start the delayed production from the second wave of discoveries in its eastern offshore KG-D6 block in November or December.
“All wells (have been) drilled, completed, tested and connected; subsea installation and testing works completed,” the firm said in an investor presentation. Balance works on control and riser platforms are currently underway and “pre-commissioning and commissioning expected in Q3 FY21”, it said.
Reliance is working on three projects in the Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block, where production from older fields stopped in February this year. The R-Series will the first of the three fields to go live. News reports suggest Reliance had previously indicated November as the month for beginning production. Gas from R-Series field was previously expected in June but due to the COVID-19 and the related disruption in supply chain, the company could not complete the project on time.
Reliance and its partner BP are developing three sets of discoveries in KG-D6 block — R-Cluster, Satellites, and MJ by 2022. Peak output of around 28 million standard cubic metres per day is expected by FY24 when all three projects are up and running. Reliance, in November last year, had auctioned the first set of 5 mmscmd of gas from the newer discoveries in the KG-D6 block by asking bidders to quote a price (expressed as a percentage of the dated Brent crude oil rate), supply period and the volume of gas required. So far, RIL made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block.
Of these, D-1 and D-3 — the largest among the lot — were brought into production from April 2009 and MA, the only oilfield in the block was put to production in September 2008. While the MA field stopped producing last year, the output from D-1 and D-3 ceased in February. On Friday, RIL reported a 15 per cent fall in quarterly profit to Rs 9,570 crore as the coronavirus pandemic hit fuel demand. Revenue slumped 24 per cent.