Explained: What start of gas production in KGD6 means for India
Reliance Industries Ltd and BP (British Petroleum) have announced the start of gas production from the R cluster, the deepest off-shore gas field in Asia. The field is the first of three deepwater gas projects in the KGD6 block jointly developed by RIL and BP to come onstream. RIL has a participating interest of 66.7% in the KG-D6 block and BP has a participating interest of 33.3% in the block. We examine the importance of this field.
Why is this important?
The R cluster, along with the Satellite Cluster and MJ gas fields in the Krishna Godavari Basin are expected to produce around 30 MMSCMD (Million standard cubic metres per day) of natural gas or about 15% of India’s projected demand for natural gas by 2023. The R cluster field alone is expected to have a peak production of 12.9 MMSCMSD or about 10% of India’s current natural gas output. In FY20, demand for natural gas in India was around 153 MMSCMD around half of which is met through imports.
RIL and BP are jointly set to invest a total of Rs 40,000 crore on these three fields. Production of gas from the R cluster was expected to start in May 2020 but was delayed due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The satellite cluster is expected to start production in the next fiscal.
Do they impact India’s energy security efforts?
The three projects are a key part of the plan to boost domestic production of natural gas to increase the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket from 6.2% now to 15% by 2030. Increased domestic production of natural gas is an important aspect in reducing India’s dependence on imports and improve energy security.
“This will be definitely beneficial to CGD companies which are in a ramping up mode and also help achieve the government’s goal focus of boosting the share of natural gas in India’s primary energy mix,” said Sanjay Sah, partner at Deloitte India.
