India's Gas Output to Rise 66% by 2016-17

India’s gas output may see a 66% jump to reach 175 million standard cubic meters per day by 2016-17 as higher prices would encourage production.

“Gas production will rise from 105 mmcmd in 2013-14 to 129 mmscmd in 2014-15, 139 mmscmd in 2015-16 and to 175 mmscmd in 2016-17,” Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Moily said RIL’s KG-D6 block will see output dip from 18.7 mmscmd in current year to 17.4 in 2014-15 and 15.02 mmscmd in the next year but will start to rise from 2016-17 when newer fields in the block are brought to production, PTI reported.

Gas output from KG-D6, as per the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), in 2016-17 will be 19.781 mmscmd, he said some of the discoveries are not viable at current rate of $4.2 and the new pricing regime will help monetise those finds, PTI added.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is expected to produce 29 mmscmd from neighbouring KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 block from 2016-17. Also, Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GPSC) will hit a peak of 5.24 mmscmd output from its KG-OSN-2001/3 block in KG Basin that year, he said.

Moily said huge natural gas discoveries have been made in North East for which road and other infrastructure like bridges need to be built for their exploitation.

“Jubilant Energy has already declared discovery of 0.7 Trillion cubic feet in Tripura. There is a huge prospect in Manipur which can go up as high as 7 Tcf. However, the exploration is yet to take place due to unapproachable terrain,” PTI quoted the minster.

The Manipur prospect will be twice the size of currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in RIL’s KG-D6 block.

“Grandfather of KG-D6 is there in Manipur,” he said.