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Reliance Industries has proposed to invest an additional $1.5 billion in bringing to production four gas discoveries adjoining its prolific gas fields in Krishna-Godavari basin in the country's east coast.
RIL had in July 2008 proposed to develop nine satellite discoveries in the Krishna Godavari basin block at a cost of $5.91 billion, but later narrowed it down to four finds that can be put to production in the next 4-5 years.
The company last week submitted a field development plan (FDP) to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) for the four discoveries that it estimates hold 0.6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves, government sources said. RIL officials did not respond immediately to queries about the investment.
The company, the sources said, plans to produce 10 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from the four fields for 6 years. RIL has till date made 19 discoveries in deep-sea block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 -- 18 gas and one oil.
Of these, it developed Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the first phase. The two fields, which began gas production in April last year, hold 10.03 Tcf of reserves.
The company has so far invested $5.8 billion out of the estimated $8.836 billion cost of developing D1 and D3 fields over their entire life. The fields are currently producing around 60 mmscmd of gas and envisage a peak output of 80 mmscmd next year.
Sources said the remaining five discoveries, originally identified in the satellite field development plan, may be taken up after more studies about their commercial viability. Besides, RIL has invested $2.234 billion in developing the MA oil field in the block that is currently producing about 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day.