RIL finds gas in Saurashtra

19 April 2007

New Delhi: Reliance Industries, the country''s largest private sector company, has made a significant gad discovery in an offshore block in Saurashtra and has intimated the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) about the discovery.

Reliance is the operator of the block with a 70-per cent stake, while Oil India Ltd has the remaining 30 per cent stake. The consortium won the block under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy.

Reliance is already a gas-rich company, sitting on an estimated 11.2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of reserves in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin, discovered in 2002.

Company officials said that though the gas discovery in the Saurashtra block is not as big as the K-G basin one studies have shown it has good potential.

The company has also discovered gas in a coal block in Madhya Pradesh, with estimated reserves of 3.76 tcf.

RIL also holds a 30 per cent stake in the Panna-Mukta-Tapti gas fields in the western offshore region. The field, in which Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) holds a 40 per cent stake and British Gas 30 per cent, currently produces 13 mscmd of gas, besides 29,000 barrels of oil per day.