Reliance Industries will begin natural gas production from R-Cluster gas field in the flagging KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal from H2/FY21.
The company is the operator of the block with 60 percent stake while BP holds 30 percent stake and Niko Resources of Canada holds the remaining 10 percent.
In June 2017, Reliance Industries and its partner BP announced an investment to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore in the three sets of discoveries to reverse the flagging production in KG-D6 block.
These finds were expected to bring a total 30-35 million cu mtr (one billion cu ft) of gas a day on-stream, phased over 2020-22.
R-Cluster will be the first to come on stream and the development is on track for first gas in 2H/FY21.
Four of the six planned wells that will produce gas from the field have been completed. The fifth well is currently being drilled. The first offshore installation campaign is underway and expected to be completed in Q1/FY20.
For the Satellite Cluster (second set) all major orders have been committed and engineering work is in progress. Moreover, the manufacturing of components of Subsea Production System (SPS) has begun.
For MJ (third of these fields) bids for major long lead items such as drilling tangibles and FPSO are underway and a rig has already been committed for drilling of wells on the field.
The company has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3 were brought into production from April 2009, while MA -- the only oilfield in the block -- was put to production in September 2008.
Moreover, four deep sea satellite gas discoveries -- D-2, 6, 19 and 22 -- are planned to be developed together with D29 and D30 finds on the block. The third set is the D-34 or R-Series find.
RIL-BP have kept the USD 3.18 billion investment plan for D-34 or R-Series gas field in the same block, which received an approved in August 2013.
Around 12.9 mmscmd of gas for 13 years can be produced from D-34 discovery, which is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of 1.4 trillion cu ft.