Director General of Hydrocarbons, VK Sibal, said on Friday that Reliance Industries LTD (RIL) had told the government that its Dhirubhai-6 well in the Krishna-Godavari Basin had struck a gas reservoir estimated to hold up to 1.2 tcf of gas.
Sibal said the upside potential of the whole deep sea block KG-DWN-98/3 (also known as KG-D6) was now 20 tcf of gas. Operator RIL - which holds a 90% interest in the block, along with Canada’s Niko Resources (10%) – had previously estimated in-place of gas reserves of about 14 tcf in the acreage.
Of the Dhirubhai-1, 2 and 3 wells previously declared commercial, RIL and Niko intend to invest over US$2.5 billion developing Dhirubhai-1 and 3, with first gas scheduled from late 2007.
The Dhirubhai field is scheduled to supply gas to National Thermal Power Corporation’s expanded 2600MW Kawas and Gandhar power station projects in Gujarat.
Earlier this year RIL became the first private sector Indian company to record an after-tax profit exceeding US$1.7 billion when it reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 7,628 Crores (US$1.74 billion) for the March year, an increase of 47%.
