Reliance, BP startup second deepwater gas field in KG-D6 block

Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner BP Plc of UK on Monday announced the start of production from the second set of discoveries the two are developing in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block.

Reliance-BP, who had commenced output from R Cluster in December last year, started production from the Satellite Cluster, the two firms said in a statement.

''Satellite Cluster field comes onstream two months ahead of schedule despite COVID-19 challenges,'' it said.

Reliance-BP is developing three deep-water gas developments in block KG-D6 -- R Cluster, Satellite Cluster, and MJ -- which together are expected to produce around 30 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas by 2023, meeting up to 15 percent of India's gas demand.

The developments will each utilize the existing hub infrastructure in the KG-D6 block.

Reliance is the operator of the block with a 66.67 percent participating interest and BP holds the remaining 33.33 percent.

The Satellite Cluster is the second of the three developments to come onstream, following the start-up of R Cluster in December 2020. It had originally been scheduled to start production in mid-2021.

The field is located about 60 km from the existing onshore terminal at Kakinada, in Andhra Pradesh in water depths of up to 1,850 meters.

''The field will produce gas from four reservoirs utilizing a total of five wells and is expected to reach gas production of up to 6 mmscmd. Together, the R Cluster and Satellite Cluster are expected to contribute to about 20 percent of India's current gas production,'' the statement said.

The third KG D6 development, MJ, is expected to come onstream towards the latter half of 2022.