RIL, BP to Develop New Gas Field in Bay of Bengal

Reliance Industries Ltd. and partner BP Plc have won approval from India’s government to prepare a plan for developing a natural gas discovery in the Bay of Bengal, Bloomberg reported.

The discovery is part of a cluster known as the R-Series that Reliance and BP plan to jointly develop.

The R1 deposit is estimated to hold about 1.6 trillion cubic feet (45 billion cubic meters) of gas and may be capable of producing more than 10 million cubic meters a day after 2015, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Economic Times has reported that India Gas Solutions, the new joint venture company of Reliance Industries and BP has held initial talks to pick up a stake in an existing operator of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. 

Shell-Hazira was a likely target, if any partner wants to sell some stake, the report said. Reliance has already been importing LNG through this terminal.

Last March RIL entered into a two-year pact with Hazira LNG to import spot LNG every month. 

Gas sourcing and distribution is one of the key aspects of the recent partnership between RIL and BP, where BP picked up a 30% stake in RIL's 21 oil and gas blocks including KG D6 for $7.2 billion. Under the 50:50 JV, the two companies are looking at setting up infrastructure for transportation and marketing of gas, which would also include setting up of gas pipelines across India.