The Hindu Business Line : RIL pegs 3 tcf gas from North-East coast block

New Delhi, Aug. 3 Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is hopeful of extracting 3-3.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) gas from its offshore shallow water block in the North-East coast. Sources said that the company has already submitted a development plan for the block NEC-OSN-97/2 (NEC 25) to the upstream regulator, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), in June.

RIL was awarded this block under the first round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). The company has already drilled eight wells and made six discoveries in the block. Reliance is the operator of block NEC-25 with 90 per cent stake and Canada’s Niko Resources holds the remaining 10 per cent.

Exploration Activity

Sources told Business Line that the company had drilled most of wells during 2003-04. RIL had started drilling in October 2003. Reliance plans to take the natural gas from NEC-25 to Haldia in West Bengal through a proposed 400-km pi peline.

Meanwhile, the issue of retention of the remaining contract area of the block by RIL is still under consideration by the block’s management committee. According to sources, after the company entered second phase of exploration activity in the block it had relinquished 25 per cent of the area, and while entering phase three, it had to release another 25 per cent. However, it decided to retain the remaining 75 per cent, stating that hydrocarbons prospects were visible in the entire remaining area.

The management committee had then asked the company to undertake three-dimensional seismic survey, which RIL has undertaken and submitted to the management committee. The initial acreage of the block was 14,535 sq km and after relinquishing 25 per cent area it currently stood at 10,755 sq km, with water depth of 30-400 m.

Under the production sharing contract, a contractor has an option to relinquish a minimum 25 per cent of the original contract area at the end of exploration phase-1. At the end of the second commitment of exploration phase, the contractor has to relinquish all areas except those in which hydrocarbons have been discovered and for which an appraisal programme or a development plan has been drawn up as per the contract.

RIL has another block NEC-DWN-2002/1 awarded under fourth round of NELP in the area, and two blocks in Mahanadi Basin.

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Reliance finds gas in 2 more east coast blocks

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