BP and Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) reported Thursday they would spend US$6 billion on three projects to develop deepwater gas resources offshore India that would bring 1 Bcf/d of dry gas production onstream between 2020 to 2022.
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Image from BP Twitter. |
The companies will award contracts for the development of the ‘R-Series’ deepwater natural gas fields in Block KGD6 off eastern India, BP said in a 15 June press statement. The fields will be tied back via subsea to the existing control and riser platform off Block KGD6.
Production from the first of the three planned projects is expected to produce up to 12 MMcm/d (425 MMcf/d) and come onstream in 2020.
The companies will submit development plans for government approval by year-end 2017, BP said. The three projects, to be developed in an integrated manner, will produce from 3 Tcf of discovered gas resources.
The R-series (D34) project is a dry gas development, located approximately 70km offshore in over 2000m of water.
The new production will help India – which consumes more than 5 Bcf/d of gas and strives to double its gas consumption by 2022 – reduce its dependence on imports. It also will amount to more than 10% of India’s projected gas demand in 2022, benefiting India and domestic consumers at large, BP said.
RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said the project would support the Prime Minister’s call for import substitution and the development of a gas-based economy. Gas produced over the life of these three new projects could generate up to $20 billion in import substitution (at current imported LNG prices) and employment of up to 20,000 skilled labor during the construction period over the next five years.
BP and RIL initially partnered in 2011, when BP acquired a 30% stake in multiple oil and gas blocks in India operated by RIL, including Block KGD6. Between 2011 and May 2017, the companies have invested over $1.6 billion in deepwater exploration and production.
In February 2013, the companies said they would invest $5 billion in the KGD6 deepwater gas development over the next three to five years.
In addition to the D55 gas discovery announced in 2013, the partnership has combined BP’s technology and skills with RIL’s execution and operational capability to sustain production from the geologically complex reservoirs in D1D3 and D26 fields on Block KGD6.
The companies also announced Thursday they would expand their partnership to the downstream sector and other areas such as differentiated fuels, mobility, and advanced low carbon solutions.
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