After Krishna Godavari (KG) basin, Reliance Industries has announced its first oil find in the Cambay basin near Ahmedabad, Gujarat. RIL holds 100 per cent participating interest (PI) in the onland exploratory block CB-ONN-2003/1 (CB 10 A&B) awarded under the NELP-V round of exploration bidding.

This is the second major oil find in Cambay basin in the last five years. GAIL, in association with the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), had struck oil in this area in 2004. According to RIL, the block covers an area of 635 sq km in two parts viz., Part A located in the west with an area of 570 square kilometers & Part B located to the east with an area of 65 square kilometers. Following the announcement, RIL shares rallied as much as 3.7 per cent. The stock, with the most weight in the Sensex, ended up 1.39 per cent at Rs 2,052.60.

“3D Seismic data has been acquired over 80 per cent of the block area and 2D Seismic data has been acquired over the entire area. Five wells have been drilled in this block. The fifth well, CB10A-A1, which is the discovery well was drilled to a total depth of 1451 m in Part A of the block with the objective of exploring the play fairway in the Miocene Basal Sand (MBS) of Babaguru formation,” RIL said.

A gross reservoir thickness of about 15 m was encountered and the well flowed at a rate of 500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) through a 6 mm bean with a flowing tubing head pressure of 360 psi on conventional testing. This discovery is expected to open future potential within the block.

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