Gas output from RIL's KG-D6 fields drops

Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas field has seen production drop to just 22 million standard cubic meters per day as the company shut over a third of wells because of high water and sand ingress.

RIL produced a total of 22.04 mmscmd of gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields and MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal in the week ended December 30, 2012, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said in a production status report to the Oil Ministry.

The output is made up of 17.66 mmscmd from D1&D3 and 4.38 mmscmd from MA field.

Together with 4.25 mmscmd from MA oil field in the same block, KG-D6 produced 23.27 mmscmd of gas in the week ending December 2, DGH said the status report dated December 3.

RIL has so far drilled 22 wells on D1& D3 fields but has put only 18 on production so far.

D1&D3, which started gas production in April 2009, had touched a peak of 55 mmscmd in August 2010 before beginning of water and sand ingress in wells.

The company had closed six wells since end-2010 and on November 29 it shut a seventh well.

The same problem has led to shutting of one-third of the wells on MA oilfield in the same block.

Output from MA is half of the peak rate it had achieved in 2010.

According to the status report, RIL produced about 6,905

barrels per day of oil from the MA field.

Of the 22.04 mmscmd of cumulative production in the December 24-31 period, 14.64 mmscmd was sold to fertiliser plants and 4.47 mmscmd to power plants.

The remaining 2.93 mmscmd gas was consumed by other sectors such as LPG and the East-West pipeline which transports the fuel from east coast to the west.

RIL, the report said, has projected an output of 22 mmscmd in January.

Sources said RIL had last year proposed to do workover or maintenance job to revive sick or closed wells but the Oil Ministry and DGH are yet to give their go ahead.

The $100-120 million spending in the workover is part of the capital Budget for current fiscal which along with the same for 2010-11 and 2011-12 is pending approval.

Oil Ministry says it has withheld approvals pending RIL agreeing to give the Comptroller and Auditor General access of its books to conduct a second round of audit.

The start of the audit was delayed because of difference over scope of the scrutiny.

RIL has so far made 18 gas and one oil discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin block in Bay of Bengal.

While the lone oil find, MA went on stream in September 2008, largest among the gas finds, D1&D3 were put on production in April, 2009.