RILBP TO INVEST ₹40K CR IN INDIAN ENERGY SECTOR

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and BP Plc will together invest ₹40,000 crore in the D6 gas field in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin to boost production in the next three-five years, the two companies said on Thursday.

RIL holds a 60% stake in the gas block, BP owns 30% and Canadabased Niko Resources Ltd the rest.

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani and BP’s group chief executive officer Bob Dudley announced the investment plan at a press conference in New Delhi, where they met oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

“RIL and BP plan to invest ₹40,000 crore to bring (on stream) 30-35 million standard cubic metres of gas in three-five years..,” Ambani said.

RIL and BP have also agreed to develop differentiated fuel, mobility and advanced low carbon energy fuels in India.

“We will explore electrification and disruptive mobility trends,” Ambani added.

Partners in the KG-D6 block produce gas from the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields and oil and gas from MA field, three of the over one-and-half dozen discoveries made in the block.

The fields began gas production in April 2009 and were to hit a peak output of 69.43 million standard cubic meters per day in March 2010.

However, water and sand ingress forced the closure of some wells, leading to a drop in gas production.

The block currently produces around 8.7 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.