The continuous drop in Reliance Industries-operated Krishna Godavari Basin D6 block output has pulled down domestic gas production for the 14th straight month in January. The output fell by 8.9 per cent year-on-year at 3.963 billion cubic metre.
Reliance Industries has told the Government that natural gas production at the producing fields in the block was likely to fall to an all-time low of 22 million cubic meters a day (mmscmd) by 2013-14 since it hit a peak of 60 mmscmd in end-2009.
The company has projected that its output for 2012-13 from the producing fields in the block will be about 27.60 mmscmd. Currently, RIL is producing about 36-37 mmscmd.
In January, the domestic output from the offshore fields fell 11.8 per cent year-on-year at 3.194 billion cubic metre.
Crude oil output in the country dropped for the fourth straight month by 1.9 per cent year-on-year at 3.173 million tonnes in January. This was mainly because production from Assam fields fell 100 per cent, Petroleum Ministry data showed.
The output from offshore fields fell 7.4 per cent year-on-year.
ONGC's Mumbai High fields, Northwest of Mumbai, produced 1.373 million tonnes, down 4.5 per cent from the same month last year.
The fields that account for 42 per cent of domestic oil production are experiencing a natural decline in output.
Total refinery output of the 17 public sector and two private sectors was down 4.6 per cent year-on-year at 14.532 million tonnes. The refiners imported 16.918 million tonnes of crude oil in January.
Reliance Industries, from its first refinery in Jamnagar, processed 10.7 per cent less crude oil in January at 3.011 million tonnes against the same month last year. Reliance refinery was shutdown in January.
The company does not share data for its second export oriented refinery at Jamnagar.
The petroleum products consumption was up in January at 12.152 million tonnes from 12.063 million tonnes in the same month last year.