Reliance Industries, the country's largest private entity, will invest more than $ nine billion in developing a gas field off the east coast of India and building pipelines to sell the fuel to consumers.
The company will spend $ 5.2 billion in bringing to production Dhirubhai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 fields in block KG-D6 in Krishna Godavari basin by June 2008.
It will invest another $ 4 billion in laying a 1,386-km pipeline from this city in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat to transport the fuel.
It will begin producing about 40 million standard cubic meters per day in June 2008 and raise it to peak output of 80 million standard cubic meters in next five months, RIL CEO (Oil and Gas) P M S Prasad told reporters here.
KG-D6, world's second largest deepwater find of the last decade, is being brought to production in less than six years of discovery at a cost of $ 2.8 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe), he said.
World-over, energy majors like Shell and Norsk Hydro took 10 years to begin production from gas fields. British Gas started production from its Egypt field in 6.5 years but the output was only 15 million standard cubic meters and the field lay in water depths of 250-850 meters as against KG-D6 in 850-1,100 meters.
{{/usCountry}}World-over, energy majors like Shell and Norsk Hydro took 10 years to begin production from gas fields. British Gas started production from its Egypt field in 6.5 years but the output was only 15 million standard cubic meters and the field lay in water depths of 250-850 meters as against KG-D6 in 850-1,100 meters.
{{/usCountry}}"Our finding and development cost is the lowest in the world," he said.
Norway's Norsk Hydro's cost for Ormen Lange field is $ 4.3 per boe while Total of France has billed Angolan field cost at over 5 dollars. US major Exxon and BP saw $ 5.5 per boe field development cost each for their Greater Plutonio and Kizomba-B fields in Angola respectively.