KG Basin: RIL’s Discoveries
The famous KG-DWN-98/l (KG-D6) block, where Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) made the world’s largest gas discovery in 2005, spans 8,100 sq. kms. of the Krishna-Godavari basin (KG basin). It lies in the Bay of Bengal on India’s east coast.
The first three discoveries (Dhirubhai-1, Dhirubhai-2 and Dhirubhai-3) have expected gas reserves of 8 tcf.
In March 2003, the exploration team discovered Dhirubhai-4, with in-place gas volumes of 1,700 bn standard cubic feet.
In February 2006, RIL encountered the thickest hydrocarbon column so far in its MA-2 well. This column reached a depth of about 3.6 km and penetrated a gross hydrocarbon column of 194m consisting of 170 m of gas and 24 m of oil.
Initial rate of production from the MA field is about 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is expected to reach its peak rate of 40,000 bpd by about mid-2010. D1 and D3 are expected to reach 2.8 bcfd within the first year of operation, although there is flexibility to raise this to 4.2bcfd.