BP-RIL combine is likely to pump in $5-10 billion investment to quadruple natural gas production, BP India head Sashi Mukundan said here on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the 12th Petro India conference here, Mr. Mukundan said gas production could rise to 40 or 50 or 60 million metric standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) by 2020.
“We have been talking about an investment of $5-10 billion,’’ he added.
BP, which invested $7.2 billion in India in 2011, sees new production coming from the 11 satellite discoveries in the KG-D6 block, five finds in NEC-25 and two discoveries in the Cauvery block.
“What is important is that we need to have clear pricing policy for raising the gas output from these fields,’’ Mr. Mukundan said.
Earlier addressing the conference, Mr. Mukundan said an opportunity awaited the BP-RIL joint venture to quadruple production by 2020 as they re-worked the fields and got into the next phase of development of already discovered resources. BP-RIL combine is now producing about 11.8 mmscmd of gas from the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 block. They are targeting newer fields in the KG-D6 block, and gas discoveries in neighbouring northeast coast and Cauvery basin to raise output. Mr. Mukundan said BP was committed to find more oil and gas globally, including India, where it was focused, along with our partner, on exploration, development and production in deep waters in the East Coast.
“I do believe there is a huge potential to find more hydrocarbons in the Indian basin, and our presence, investment and track record to date are a testimony to this.
“Our joint venture alone could reveal a prize of over $100-150 billion for India by avoiding costly imports,’’ he remarked.
RIL-BP, he said, was doing remedial work on three shut wells, which would yield results in the January-March quarter.
