Reliance finds gas off Andhra coast

New Delhi, Feb 13 (UNI) Reliance Industries Ltd today announced the first gas discovery in a deep waters block in the Krishna Godavari basin off Andhra Pradesh coast.

''The find was made in exploratory block KG-DWN-2003/1, located about 50 kilometers from Machalipatnam in Andhra Pradesh in the deep waters of the Krishna Basin in the Bay of Bengal,'' a company spokesperson said.

The block, that was awarded to RIL under NELP-V, covers 3,288 sq km.

Mukesh Ambani-RIL holds 90 per cent participating interest in the block and the balance 10 per cent is held by Hardy Exploration and Production India, the spokesperson said.

He said the gas discovery was struck in the first exploratory well drilled at a water depth of 716 metres and it yielded a thick reservoir with gross hydrocarbon column of around 84 meters in Pliestocene.

After evaluation through wire-line based technology called modular dynamic testing, the well flowed at a rate of 38.1 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) on conventional testing.

This discovery, named 'Dhirubhai-39', has been notified to the Central government and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

The potential commercial interest of the discovery is being ascertained through more data gathering and analysis, the spokesperson added.

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