Reliance and bp start up second new deepwater gas field in India’s KG D6 block

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and bp announced start of production from the Satellite Cluster gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India.

RIL and bp have been developing three deep-water gas developments in block KG D6 – R Cluster, Satellite Cluster and MJ – which together are expected to produce around 30 mmscmd (1 billion cubic feet a day) of natural gas by 2023, meeting up to 15% of India’s gas demand. The developments will each utilize the existing hub infrastructure in the KG D6 block. RIL is the operator of the block with a 66.67% participating interest and bp holds a 33.33% participating interest.

The Satellite Cluster is the second of the three developments to come onstream, following the start-up of R Cluster in December 2020. It had originally been scheduled to start production in mid-2021. The field is located about 60 km from the existing onshore terminal at Kakinada on the east coast of India in water depths of up to 1850 meters.

The field will produce gas from four reservoirs utilizing a total of five wells and is expected to reach gas production of up to 6 mmscmd. Together, the R Cluster and Satellite Cluster are expected to contribute to about 20% of India’s current gas production.

The third KG D6 development, MJ, is expected to come onstream towards the latter half of 2022.