Reliance strikes more gas in Krishna-Godavari Basin

Monday, 25 September 2006, 19:30 IST
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New Delhi: Indian diversified major Reliance Industries Limited, which claims to have found over 50 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas so far, announced yet another find in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin. Reliance has notified to the exploration regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH), "about discovery of gas in KG-OSN-2001/1 (NELP-III) block in the Krishna-Godavari basin off east coast of India," a company statement said. The discovery has been named Dhirubhai 28 - after the late founder of the Reliance group. "The potential commercial interest of the discovery is yet to be established," the statement said. DGH head V.K. Sibal admitted to having received the notification of the find. "We have been notified the details of the discovery but have not yet done the assessment (of it being a commercial discovery)," said Sibal. In the case of a gas discovery off the Saurashtra coast notified by Reliance in August, he said, "We have not accepted the claim due to procedural lapses in the notification as per the production sharing contract." Reliance claims to have struck gas in block SR-OS-94/1. DGH has asked the company to drill another well to validate the discovery. Earlier this week at an oil conference in London, a top official of the company had claimed that its natural gas reserves in the KG basin could be more than 50 TCF. "Reserves and technical resources put together could exceed 50 TCF," Atul Chandra, head of Reliance international operations, had said. This figure was far in excess of its earlier claim of the KG basin find to be around 35 TCF.
Source: IANS