BP-RIL to invest $5 bn in KG-D6

Reliance Industries and its British partner BP are planning a joint investment of more than $5 billion over the next three to five years to boost declining output at the KG-D6 block.

Besides detailing $5 billion investment plan, BP chief executive Bod Dudley and RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani in their first joint meeting with the oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday, in all likelihood also discussed the dispute with CAG over audit of spendings in the gas block.

Dudley and Ambani, in the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, briefed Moily of plans to develop 4 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in the block, where production has dropped to about 19 million standard cubic metres per day, which is less than a third of 62 mmscmd peak hit in 2010.

The duo, flanked by BP India head Sashi Mukundan and RIL executive director PMS Prasad, updated Moily of "joint future plans in India, including the KG-D6 block enhancement plan", RIL-BP said in a joint statement.

While the investment in the new reserves, that lie in satellite fields surrounding the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 & 3 (D1&D3) gas fields and MA oil and gas field, will take 3-5 years, RIL-BP plan to augment current production next year. "They briefed (me) about their investment plans. I encouraged them to invest more to help in India's energy security," Moily told PTI.

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