Mumbai: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP have announced the start of natural gas production from the Satellite Cluster gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India. The news comes four months after the consortium announced the commencement of natural gas production from the R Cluster, ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG D6 in December 2020. R Cluster was the first of the three projects being developed by Reliance and BP in the KG basin to come onstream.
In an official statement released on Monday, Reliance said, "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 on the east coast of India in water depths of up to 1,850 meters."
The field will produce gas from four reservoirs utilising 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 third KG D6 development, MJ, is expected to come onstream towards the latter half of 2022, said Reliance.
RIL and BP have been developing three deep-water gas developments in block KG D6 – R Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ – which together are expected to produce around 30 MMSCMD (1 billion cubic feet a day) of natural gas by 2023, meeting up to 15 percent of India's gas demand. The developments will each utilise the existing hub infrastructure in the KG D6 block. RIL is the operator of the block with a 66.67 percent participating interest and BP holds a 33.33 percent participating interest.
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