RIL KG Basin Gas Output Hits All Time Low

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has shut its eighth well on the main gas fields in KG-D6 block, leading to output plummeting to all time low of 20.88 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic meter per day), Press Trust of India said.

RIL, on January 9, shut the well B6 on the main producing fields of Dhiburbhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) in Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block 'due to water loading,' according to a status report of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). Previously, on November 29 it had shut B4, the seventh well on D1&D3 field.

The latest shutting led to the output slipping from D1&D3 to 16.98 million standard cubic meters per day during the week ended January 13, the report said. Together with 4.37 mmsmcd from MA oilfield in the same block, the output totalled 21.35 mmscmd in the week. However, the production has since plummeted further to 20.88 mmscmd this week, the lowest level since D1&D3 started production in April 2009. The output has fallen from 22.04 mmscmd in December end, when D1&D3 produced 17.66 mmscmd and MA 4.38 mmscmd.

RIL has so far drilled 22 wells on D1&D3 fields but has put only 18 on production so far. D1&D3, which started gas production in April 2009, had touched a peak of 55 mmscmd in August 2010 before beginning of water and sand ingress in wells. The same problem has led to shutting of one-third of the wells on MA oilfield in the same block. Output from MA is half of the peak rate it had achieved in 2010.