One year of successful operation at KG-DWN-98/3

In 2002, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) struck gas in KG-DWN-98/3 which in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal and 50 km away from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh on the East coast of India. It was first of its kind in the sub continent, where the gas reservoir was located 3 kilometers (kms.) below the seabed and the seabed itself over a kilometer below sea level.

The exploration conditions at the location were hostile for most part of the year and an area with no known infrastructure to begin with. Two monsoons that last for months left a fair weather window of just four months to work in a year. It was difficult to carry out exploration and exploration and development activities as there was an acute shortage of professionals, equipment, material and services due to upswing of E&D activities globally. 

Despite all these hurdles, RIL beat the market expectations by developing the block in a record time of little over six years, far below the global average of more than 9 years. Reliance speed is legendary and has mastered project management skills and has made it virtually into a fine art. There is no doubt that RIL is following the path laid by its founder chairman Late Dhirubhai Ambani. Dhirubhai had famously said "Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my expectation”. 

The Indian oil sector major commenced the gas production from KG-DWN-98/3, famously called as KG D-6, last year. On April 1, the gas production at KG D-6 will celebrate its first anniversary. In its journey so far at KG D-6, RIL has achieved many milestones. 

• Successfully completed 365 days of safe, successful and incident free operation. 

• Produced 14 billion cubic metre (bcm) of gas from D1/D3 blocks. 

• Uninterrupted supply of gas and maintained the quality. 

• 4 million barrels (bbls) of crude oil was also produced from D26 block.  

Moreover, RIL did not face any production loss during its one year of operation and achieved 100% equipment reliability. The company fully met 100% compliances. All systems and procedures were well in place. RIL also completed the teat of 80 MMSCMD production, supply and transportation. Despite the enormity of such large scale project, RIL maintained excellent health, safety and environment (HSE) record

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