RIL made country proud with the development of KG D-6 block, saving large public money

Life at KG D-6 gas field operated by Indian oil and gas sector major Reliance Industries has come to full circle. RIL is completing one year of successful operation at KG D-6. Readers will recall that RIL had started the production at its prolific KG D-6 gas block on April 1, 2009. KG D-6 is the most prolific gas finds in the Indian oil & gas sector and is considered as main source of future gas supply domestically. The RIL operated fields is expected to produce 80 million standard cubic metre of natural gas every day (mmscmd).  

During its one year of operation/production at KG D-6, RIL, on an average has supplied 38.62 mmscmd of gas to major gas consuming sectors. Currently, RIL is producing about 60-62 mmscmd of natural gas from KG D-6 block, which is about three-fourth of India’s total domestic gas production from all other sources. Major beneficiaries of KG D-6 gas are fertilizer, power, steel, city gas distribution sectors among others.

Production of gas from RIL’s KG D-6 block came at a time when the country was witnessing acute gas shortage. As natural gas is considered as the clean and environmentally friendly fuel and also called the ‘fuel of the future’, all the major gas consuming countries want to switch over to natural gas either as their mainstay fuel or feedstock. Intent of these companies to adopt gas as their main source of energy is also motivated from the fact that gas is much cheaper option compared to other liquid fuels apart from its obvious environment friendly nature. However, due to supply constraints, these companies have been deprived of natural gas supply. With the commencement of gas from RIL’s KG D-6 last year, the supply to these gas consuming industries was insured.  The total savings to the nation are worth Rs10,100 crores with 99% share contributed by the power, fertilizer, refineries and steel sectors altogether. The Power sector saves Rs 5400 crores, the fertilizer sector saves Rs 3100 crores, the refineries saved Rs 758 crores and steel savings were of the order of Rs 732 crores per annum.

With savings of such large sum, the Government can utilize this public money in creating better infrastructure, health care facilities, education system and other public utilities. The nation, however, needs to be thankful to KG D-6 and the enormous efforts taken by the RIL in creating such a valuable asset for the nation. RIL had taken huge risk of investing Rs 38,000 crore in developing India’s first deepwater project without much of prior experience in hydrocarbon business, though eventually the company has made the country proud of it.

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