Reliance Industries and its affiliates have picked up more than three-fourth of the new gas volumes from the firm's eastern offshore KG-D6 block which at the current government dictated price will cost it less than half of the imported rate.
The company and its partner UK's BP had auctioned 5.5 mmscmd of incremental gas from the newer discoveries in the KG-D6 block, benchmarking it to a gas marker.
The company’s oil-to-chemical (O2C) business unit picked up 3.2 mmscmd gas in the auction. India Gas Solutions (IGS) -- a gas sourcing and marketing joint venture (JV) of Reliance and BP -- picked up another one mmscmd.
The remaining volume was picked by Adani Gas (0.15 mmscmd), IRM Energy (0.10 mmscmd), GAIL (30,000 cu mtr per day) and Torrent Gas (20,000 cu mtr per day).
The price discovered in the e-auction came at USD 0.06 discount to the Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) LNG price. At the current prices, this translates into a price of USD eight to nine per mmBtu, but the buyers will end up paying less than half of this rate.
The government sets a cap or ceiling rate at which natural gas from difficult fields like deep sea can be sold. This cap for the period 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021 is USD 3.62 per mmBtu.
In February 2021, RIL-BP ad sold out 7.5 mmscmd of gas from the block. In that auction too, RIL picked up two-thirds of 7.5 mmscmd gas sold.
Reliance O2C picked up 4.8 mmscmd of gas while state gas utility GAIL (India) won 0.85 mmscmd of supplies and Shell 0.7 mmscmd. Adani Total Gas won 0.1 mmscmd, the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) 0.2 mmscmd and Torrent Gas 0.02 mmscmd, IRM Energy (0.1 mmscmd), PIL (0.35 mmscmd) and IGS (0.35 mmscmd).
The gas in the auction was bought at a price of USD 0.18 per mmBtu discount to JKM i.e. price of JKM (minus) USD 0.18 with tenures ranging from three to five years.
Reliance-BP began production of gas on 18 December 2020 from the R Cluster ultra deepwater gas field in block KG-D6 off the east coast of India.
Reliance-BP is investing USD five billion in bringing to production three deepwater gas projects in block KG-D6 R-Cluster, Satellites Cluster, and MJ which together are expected to meet about 15 percent of India's gas demand by 2023.