First oil flows from Reliance's KG Basin field

19 September 2008

Mumbai: Reliance Industries has begun crude oil production from its deep-sea oilfield in the Krishna Godavari basin in the east coast. Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani is likely to make an announcement in the next few days on this.

''You may hear of it as early as Monday (September 22),'' said a source in the Reliance Industries-Niko Resources consortium that operates the block. The predominantly gas-rich Block KG-DWN-98/3 or D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin flowed first oil on September 17, the source added.

RIL's D6 block is the first deep-sea area in the country to produce crude oil since India launched auctioning of oil and gas blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

Initial flow of crude oil is reported to have been at the rate of 200 barrels per day. But, once the system stabilises, the choke will be fully opened to produce more, sources said.

Once both the wells are in full operation, the output will rise to 10,000-15,000 barrels per day within weeks. Reliance has initially opened one of the two oil producing wells in the MA oilfield in the D6 block,'' sources said.

Two more wells are planned to be drilled on the field which would raise the output to 34,000 barrels per day (1.7 million tones a year).