First Gas From Asia’s Deepest Offshore Project

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and bp have announced the start of production from the R Cluster, ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India.

RIL and bp are developing three deepwater gas projects in block KG D6 – R Cluster, Satellites Cluster and MJ – which together are expected to meet approximately 15% of India’s gas demand by 2023. These projects will utilize the existing hub infrastructure in KG D6 block. RIL is the operator of KG D6 with a 66.67% participating interest and bp holds a 33.33% participating interest.

R Cluster is the first of the three projects to come onstream. The field is located about 60 km from the existing KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP) off the Kakinada coast and comprises a subsea production system tied back to CRP via a subsea pipeline. Located at a water depth of greater than 2000 m, it is the deepest offshore gas field in Asia. The field is expected to reach plateau gas production of about 12.9 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) in 2021.

“This startup is another example of the possibility of our partnership with Reliance, bringing the best of both companies to help meet India’s rapidly expanding energy needs,” said Bernard Looney, bp group chief executive. “Growing India’s own production of cleaner-burning gas to meet a significant portion of its energy demand, these three new KG D6 projects will support the country’s drive to shape and improve its future energy mix.”

The next project, the Satellites Cluster, is expected to come onstream in 2021 followed by the MJ project in 2022. Peak gas production from the three fields is expected to be around 30 mmscmd (1 bcf/d) by 2023 which is expected to be about 25% of India’s domestic production and will help reduce the country’s dependence on imported gas.