India's First Deepwater Offshore Field Showcases Ingenuity

Abstract

India’s first deepwater oil and gas field, located in the KG-D6 block 60 km off the east coast of India in the Bay of Bengal, is a success story of government initiative, private enterprise, and global engineering ingenuity. Operated by Reliance Industries, a multinational corporation based in Mumbai, KG-D6 is a world-class discovery at 1200-m depth with proved plus probable reserves of 11.3 Tcf. The fast-track construction of the oil and gas production facilities involved the mobilization of engineering talent, manufacturing capabilities, and construction skills in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (Fig. 1). In the process, the KG-D6 field has set numerous world records and milestones for India’s emerging oil and gas industry. First Success of Licensing Round The KG-D6 block was awarded in 2000 to a partnership of Reliance Industries (90%) and Niko Resources of Calgary (10%) in the first licensing round initiated by the government of India through its New Economic Licensing Program (NELP). Before NELP, India carried out E&P activities through public-sector companies such as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). ONGC remains the leading operator in India, but eight rounds of NELP have opened the country’s oil and gas sector to a variety of other public-sector companies (Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation), international oil companies (Cairn Energy, British Gas, Eni), and Indian private companies in addition to Reliance (Essar, Jubilant). Reliance Industries is an Indian conglomerate with extensive operations in the textile, petrochemical, and retail sectors with annual revenues of USD 28 billion. The company was launched in 1962 as yarn trading company by Dhirubhai Ambani. The growth of the company is a study in vertical integration. From yarn, Reliance built textile mills, petrochemical complexes, and entered the upstream oil and gas industry in 1999. Deepwater Discoveries The Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin covers an area of more than 20 000 km2 on land and extends into the bay more than 24 000 km2 down a steep slope to 2000-m depth (Fig. 2). The Krishna and western part of the Godavari troughs are filled with mainly Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments, while the eastern part of the Godavari trough contains a predominantly Upper Mesozoic and Tertiary section. The discovery of biogenic gas has been made primarily in the Upper Pliocene plays.