Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) may have to shut down its key gas-producing fields in the KG-D6 block in 2015-16, petroleum secretary GC Chaturvedi has said.
He was responding to a question at the Economic Editor's Conference in New Delhi on
Tuesday.
“That is a fear,” he said. “Having the capacity to handle 120 units a day and running it at such low production, with fears that it may drop to 10 units, you are almost declaring it shut. It will not be commercially feasible.”
The KG-D6 block is India’s largest gas-producing one, and is being developed by a Reliance Industries-led consortium of BP and Niko.
RIL and BP had warned that the fields may be shut if the government does not clear investments needed to keep them alive.
The consortium has said the gas output would be lower than anticipated due to geological complexities, petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy said at the conference, “I am not convinced with their argument that output is declining due to geological issues.”