Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP announced on Friday the start of production of the R Cluster, an ultra-deepwater gas field in the KG-D6 block off the east coast of India.
RIL and BP are developing three deepwater gas projects in the KG-D6 block: R Cluster, Satellites Cluster and MJ, which together are expected to meet 15% of India’s gas demand by 2023.
RIL is the operator of the KG-D6 block with a 66.67% stake and BP has a 33.33% stake.
“R Cluster is the first of three projects to be launched. The field is located about 60 kilometers from the existing KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP) off the coast of Kakinada and comprises a subsea production system Linked to CRP through a Located at a water depth of more than 2000 meters, it is the deepest offshore gas field in Asia. The field is expected to achieve a plateau gas production of approximately 12.9 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) in 2021, “RIL said in an official statement.
“We are proud of our partnership with bp that combines our experience in getting gas projects up and running in an expeditious manner, in some of the most challenging geographic and climatic conditions. This is an important milestone in India’s energy landscape, for a cleaner and greener gas-based economy. Through our deepwater infrastructure in the Krishna Godavari Basin, we hope to produce gas and meet the nation’s growing clean energy requirements, “said Mukesh Ambani, President and CEO of Reliance Industries Limited.
“This startup is another example of the potential of our partnership with Reliance, bringing the best of both companies to help meet India’s rapidly expanding energy needs. These three new KG D6 projects, which grow India’s own cleaner-burning gas production to meet a significant portion of its energy demand, will support the country’s drive to shape and improve its future energy mix, “said the BP CEO Bernard Looney.
The next project, the Satellite Cluster, is expected to go live in 2021, followed by the MJ project in 2022.
Peak gas production from the three fields is expected to be around 30 mmcmd (1 bcf / d) by 2023, which is expected to be around 25% of India’s domestic production and will help reduce dependence on the gas. country of imported gas.
RIL’s flagship D1 / D3 gas field in the KG-D6 block ceased gas production in February after being put into production in April 2009.
Field production began to decline from April 2010 after peaking at 61.43 (mmscmd) in March 2010. RIL had an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, but due to the complexity of the deposit and the entry of sand and water, production decreased. . Last quarter, the field produced an average of just 1.5 mmcmd.
In September 2018, it closed its only oil field (MA field) in block D6 due to lack of production.
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