Commodity Online

MUMBAI: India s leading private sector industrial giant Reliance Industries has announced a second gas discovery in a Krishna Godavari basin block off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

In a statement issued here, RIL said, the discovery was made in the block KG DWN 2003/1, which the company had won in the fifth round of auction under New Exploration Licensing Policy.

Earlier the company had informed the government that its earlier find in the block was assessed to be commercially viable for producing gas.

The well KG VD3 B1 was drilled at a water depth of 711 meters, to a total depth of 2730 meters. Excellent qualities of reservoirs were encountered with gross hydrocarbon columns of around 111 meters.

The second discovery has been named Dhirubhai 41 and has been notified to the government and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

In February 2008, Reliance made first gas discovery in the same block and named it Dhirubhai 39 and the notification of potential commercial discovery was submitted to government and DGH.

Block KG DWN 2003/1, which lies about 50 km off Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, is in the same region as the prolific KG D6 block, from where it plans to start producing 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas later this year.

Reliance holds 90 percent interest in the block, while Hardy Exploration and Production India Inc has the balance 10 percent.

India