The Hindu Business Line : New gas find off Orissa coast

RELIANCE Industries today said it has struck gas off the Orissa coast in its NEC-OSN-97/2 block. Initial estimates indicate in-place reserves of four to five trillion cubic feet, Mr Mukesh Ambani, CMD, said today.

He said the company would make a separate announcement after it had undergone a third-party certification process for determining the size of its reserves. Canadian oil company Niko Resources is 10 per cent partner in this acreage.

The discoveries, which will be named Dhurbhai 9, Dhirubhai 10 and Dhirubhai 11, came after drilling 61 unsuccessful wells, he said. RIL will be investing Rs 2,500 crore on exploration and production over the next 24 to 30 months, he said.

Mr Ambani reiterated that RIL's huge discovery at the Krishna-Godavari basin would yield in-place gas volumes of 14 trillion cubic feet. A development plan for producing 40 million cubic metres per day of gas from the KG basin block by year 2006-07 has been submitted to the Government.

The company has already tied-up customers for 80 million cubic metres per day of this gas, he said.

It was recently announced the lowest bidder for supplying three million tonnes a year natural gas to NTPC Ltd.

Mr Ambani said the company's Yemen find, announced last year would yield 50 to 60 million barrels of oil from three blocks and will begin production during this financial year.