September 22, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Mumbai, Sept 21: Reliance Industries Limited has commenced production of hydrocarbons in its KG-D6 block of Krishna-Godavari Basin pushing India towards energy independence.
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani on Sunday announced that the initial crude oil production of about 5,000 barrels per day would be increased to 5.5 lakh barrels per day over the next six to eight quarters. ¡§A first of its kind hydrocarbons production from any deep water field in the country, Reliance KG-D6 will account for 40 per cent of country¡¦s current indigenous hydrocarbon production,¡¨ Mukesh said adding that the production from KG-D6 facility will save India an annual foreign exchange outflow of US$20 billion.
He said from the time of its discovery, RIL had started production of oil in KG-D6 in just over two years making it one of the fastest green-field deep water oil development projects in the world.
¡§This production has been achieved against challenges like difficult ocean conditions, lack of adequate sub-sea data, low sea bed temperature (5ƒ¿ C), severe supply chain constraints and shortage of technical manpower,¡¨ he said.
The KG-D6 Block of Reliance is located in the Bay of Bengal at a water depth of 8000 ft. and 50 kms from the nearest coast of Kakinada. With this production, the East Coast of India is set to emerge as a world class hydrocarbon hub. Reliance will also start its gas production in the next couple of months.
The production at KG-D6 blocks comes 40 years after Bombay High was discovered. ¡§This has huge significance for India¡¦s economic development, enabling India¡¦s farmers to access energy and drastically reducing pollution in cities and towns. It will also provide distributed power to urban and rural areas in a much shorter time than we are able to do at present,¡¨ he said.
India¡¦s current hydrocarbon oil and gas production is 1.3 million barrels of equivalent per day. With Reliance¡¦s contribution in the energy sector, the country¡¦s indigenous production of hydrocarbons will increase by over 40 per cent in the next 18 months.
Reliance¡¦s targeted production of 5,50,000 barrels per day of hydrocarbons can feed cooking gas to 100 million to 120 million households, reducing subsidy burden on the government.
¡§Now it is possible to provide natural gas to over 50 million two-wheelers, five million cars and 10 million trucks. It is now possible to provide distributed power generation for thousands of megawatts of power. This can meet the requirement of lighting for over 80 million households,¡¨ Mukesh said.
This landmark development culminates 27 months of painstaking efforts by over 2000 engineers and personnel. RIL has joined the elite club of Deep Water Operators, very few in the world. With this, RIL is also amongst the top 20 energy companies in the world. ¡§This will enable Reliance to create unprecedented value for our shareholders,¡¨ he added.
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