By IANS,
New Delhi : Gas production in the Krishna-Godavari basin KG D6 block, operated by Reliance Industries, has declined in 2011-12 and the estimate of gas reserves has been lowered, Minister of State for Petroleum R.P.N. Singh said Thursday.
In a written reply to a question in parliament, the minister said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had reported that the decline in production was owing to “ingress” of water and sand into wellbores of gas producer wells.
The minister said that DGH had also reported “non drilling of the required number of gas producer wells in D1 and D3 fields by the Contractor in line with the Addendum to Initial Development Plan (AIDP) approved by the Management Committee (MC).”
The minister added that “The Operator has attributed lower gas production as compared to approved AIDP from D1 and D3 fields to unforeseen geological surprises and reservoir”.
Regarding the difference in estimated gas reserves prior to staring work and that estimated at present, the minister said: “The contractor has attributed various reasons for reduction in reserves such as production performance, pressure decline, early water encroachment, less contribution from sands outside the main channel areas, results obtained from material balance, simulation and geological models etc.”
The DGH-headed management committee of the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)-operated block Tuesday approved $1.06 billion for 2012-13 towards the KG-D6 budget, which had been pending for long.
The MC also allowed RIL and its partner BP to develop three other gas fields in the same block on condition that the operator would be able to recover the costs only after extensive appraisal of these discoveries for their commercial viability.