RIL, bp start regular production from MJ oil & gas field

Reliance Industries Ltd, and its partner bp Plc on Friday announced the start of regular production from MJ oil and gas field in the KG-D6 block, helping scale up India's output of clean fuel to over 100 million cubic meters a day.

MJ is the third and the last set of discoveries in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block, off the east coast that the consortium was working on. All three sets of discoveries, with MJ being the deepest, were made more than a decade back and have been progressively put into production.

Together, the three sets of discoveries at their peak production will make up for 15 per cent of India's demand, the companies said in a statement on Friday.

"The start of gas and condensate production from the MJ field follows the start-up of the R-Cluster field in December 2020 and Satellite Cluster in April 2021," it said.

All three developments utilise the existing hub infrastructure for the block.

"Together, the three fields are expected to produce around 30 million standard cubic meters of gas a day (1 billion cubic feet a day) when MJ field reaches peak production," it said.

"This is expected to account for around one-third of India's current domestic gas production and meet approximately 15 per cent of India's demand".

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They however did not give timelines for reaching peak output.

Reliance-bp had in May 2013 struck a 155-meter thick gas condensate column in the exploration well KGD6-MJ1, which was later named as D55 or MJ-1 discovery.

MJ field is located about 2,000 meters directly below the DHirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 and D3) fields that ceased to produce in 2020.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, said: "We continue to be proud of our partnership with bp that combines our expertise in commissioning complex projects under some of the most challenging environments in the last few years. Alongside the other KG D6 fields, the MJ development truly supports the 'Make in India' and 'Energy vision' laid out by Government of India.".

The start of output from MJ helped natural gas production in the country touch 101 million standard cubic meters per day on June 24.

bp chief executive Bernard Looney said: "By safely bringing these new developments onstream, Reliance and bp are making an important contribution to meeting India's demand for secure supplies of gas. Our close strategic partnership with Reliance now stretches back over 15 years and we are proud of how it continues to deepen - in gas, retail, aviation fuels and sustainable mobility solutions."

"Together we are helping to meet India's growing energy needs, bringing the best of each partner to create real value," he said.

Discovered in 2013 and sanctioned in 2019, the MJ field is located in water depths of up to 1,200 meters about 30 kilometer from the existing onshore terminal at Gadimoga on the east coast of India.

MJ is a high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT), gas and condensate field. The field will produce from eight wells and reach a peak gas production of around 12 mmsmd gas and 25,000 barrels of condensate per day.

The field has been brought to production using a new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, the 'Ruby' to process and separate the condensate, gas, water, and impurities, before sending the gas onshore for sale.

Condensate is stored on the FPSO before being offloaded to shuttle tankers for supply to Indian refineries.

Reliance is the operator of the KG-D6 block with a 66.67 per cent stake and bp holds the remaining 33.33 per cent.

Reliance has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3 -- the largest among the lot -- were brought into production in April 2009, and MA, the only oilfield in the block, was put into production in September 2008.

While the MA field stopped producing in September 2018, output from D-1 and D-3 ceased in February 2020.

Since then, Reliance-bp invested $5 billion in bringing to production three deepwater gas projects in block KG-D6 -- R-Cluster, Satellites Cluster, and MJ.

The first set of two discoveries produced 18-19 mmscmd of gas in the quarter that ended March 31, according to Reliance's annual financial statement.