Reliance announces 8th gas discovery in Mahanadi basin

Reliance Industries Ltd has announce yet another gas discovery in NEC-OSN 97/2 (NEC-25) block located in the NEC-Mahanadi offshore basin, off the Orissa coast in the Bay of Bengal.

This shallow water block covering an area of 10,755 sq km in water depths ranging between 20 metres to 600 metres was awarded under the bidding round of NELP I. RIL holds 90 per cent participating interest with NIKO (NELPIO) Ltd. holding the rest.

This is the eighth discovery in the block. RIL had earlier struck six consecutive commercial discoveries in this block, for which the development plan has been submitted to the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH) for approval.

According to the company, the NEC 25-JI well was drilled to explore the upper Miocene slope sands in the deeper part of the block. This well was drilled at a water depth of 478 metre to the target depth of 2926 metre.

"For the first time in this basin, the well encountered high quality multi-darcy gas bearing reservoir sands in the interval 2484 - 2495.5 m based on the interpretation of the wire-line logs, said a company communiqué. Reliance says the presence of gas in the interval was confirmed by carrying out modular dynamic testing (MDT).

This discovery, named 'Dhirubhai-40' has been notified to government of India and the DGH. RIL is currently evaluating the potential commercial interest of the discovery through additional data collection and analysis.

This discovery establishes the hydrocarbon potential towards the deeper part of NEC-Mahanadi Basin and opens up more acreage for further hydrocarbon exploration efforts.