Reliance will drill 20 wells in Phase-II at KG-DWN-98/3
Reliance will enter Phase-II of its development programme at D-6 in June 2008 after completing Phase-I with 14 gas producers.
Says a source: Phase-II will begin from June 2008 and will see another 20 development wells. But theres no deadline for bringing these 20 wells onto production, unlike with the 14 wells in Phase-I.
It is still very hazy as of now, we hear. Everything depends on production from the Phase-I wells.
Is additional gas required If yes, how much What customers are around What price are they willing to pay How is the pipeline network growing Is the growth more towards the west and north or towards the south and east Still, Reliance is going ahead with plans to lay its own 48-inch pipeline to transport initial quantities of 40m cm/d (rising later) from Kakinada to Uran and Ahmedabad. Aker Kvaerner is Reliances main engineering consultant for the D-6 development project but Reliance plans to hire a separate installation contractor to carry out the actual development work to bring the gas to shore.
Tenders are already out for this job and Reliance has received bids which are now being evaluated, an industry source tells this report. We expect a decision by the end of next month (September).
Reliance believes D-6 still holds great potential and is continuing its exploration programme alongside its development programme. Dhirubhai-1 and 3 cover less than 5% of the block area, says an industry source.
Reliance has a backlog of more than 20 exploratory locations on the block. Drilling of these will be taken up by Transocean rig Discoverer 534 when she returns from her present assignment overseas.
Discoverer 534 is expected around September to drill at least one exploratory well. After that, she is scheduled to go to dry dock for a routine maintenance plus upgrade to enable her to drill in the deeper waters of D-6.
