New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL) has decided to relinquish two gas discoveries off the east coast and opted to carry out government prescribed confirmation tests to retain three other finds. Accepting a government offer to conduct Drill Stem Test (DST) under limited cost to retain gas discoveries that otherwise would have been taken away for not meeting timelines, RIL has opted to do confirmatory test on two of the three contentious gas finds in the KG-D6 block and one of the two discoveries in question in NEC-25 block.
RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada’s Niko Resources — will relinquish discoveries D-40 in NEC-25 block off the Odisha coast and D-31 in KG D6 block, sources privy to the development said. The company will conduct DST on discoveries D-32 in NEC-25 block and D-29 and D-30 in KG D6 block. Sources said the budget for doing the DST within the government prescribed cost of $15 million each was approved at block oversight panel, called Management Committee, meeting last week.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had in April approved a policy to allow operators to develop a dozen contentious natural gas discoveries worth about Rs 1 lakh crore at current prices. The new policy gives companies options to either develop the finds at their own risk or perform upstream regulator DGH-prescribed conformity tests before developing them and recoup the entire cost.
Sources said the policy approved by CCEA settled long pending issue with regards to 12 discoveries in five blocks pertaining to Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) (six discoveries) and RIL (six discoveries). The 12 finds hold reserves of around 90 bcm of gas.
