Ahmedabad: On the heels of the news of ONGC's gas find off the Andhra coast, comes the news of The Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) having made the country's biggest gas discovery of 20 trillion cubic feet, worth $50 billion, off the South-east coast of Andhra Pradesh.

The announcement was made by Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat.

The find was made in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin at an offshore deep-sea well 6km off the Yanam Kakinada coast in Andhra Pradesh. GSPC stuck oil in an exploration block in the west last year, with estimated reserves of 50 million tonnes.

India's recent major discoveries have added 4.4 billion barrels of hydrocarbon reserves in the past two years.

"The team of GSPC experts detected gas around in the first week of June, 2005, after intensive drilling up to 5,061 metres into the seabed at a temperature of 400º Fahrenheit (204 Celsius)," Modi told reporters.

India's biggest gas find until now — 14 trillion cubic feet — is also in the KG basin, being developed by Reliance Industries and due to start producing by August, 2008. GSPC plans to invest Rs15 billion ($345 million) exploring the KG basin. It is also developing a block with Canada's Geoglobal Resources and Jubilant Enpro.