KGBasin

In September 2007, India’s largest private sector company, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced an oil discovery in the deepwater block KG-DWN-98/1 (KG-D4) located in the Krishna-Godavari basin (KG basin). This block was awarded to RIL, which holds 100% participating interest in it, under NELP-I and spans an area of 8100 sq kms.

The find, named ‘Dhirubhai – 36’, was the premier oil discovery in the deep-water basin of the area. The well was located in a water depth of 565 meters and was drilled to a target depth of 3595 meters. During the Drill Stem Testing (DST), the well flowed 596 barrels of oil per day.

In September 2009, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) said that the gas output from only the fields managed Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) could be almost 4 times the levels committed by the company so far.

The mammoth implication of these figures lies in its oil equivalence. Totaling about 2 million barrels of oil per day, it wholly covers India’s current consumption of oil. Ironically, most of this oil is imported by the country.  However, the nation’s gas consumption is over and above this expected output.

Yet, if both DGH and RIL confirm this production potential, it would mark the most significant energy development India has ever seen!