Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP (bp plc) together are developing three deepwater gas projects, located off the east coast of India. Located in an ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG D6 – R Cluster, Satellites Cluster, and MJ together are expected to meet around 15% of India’s gas demand by 2023. They have announced the start of production from the R Cluster.

These projects will utilize the existing hub infrastructure present in the KG D6 block. RIL is the operator of KG D6 having 66.67% participating interest while bp plc holds the remaining 33.33%. R Cluster is the first of the three projects in KGD6 to go on-stream. This field is located off the Kakinada coast, approx. 60 kms from the KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP). It comprises a sub-sea production system tied back to CRP via a subsea pipeline. It is currently the deepest offshore gas field in Asia and is located at a water depth of more than 2000 meters. This field is expected to plateau gas production at around 12.9 mmscmd (million standard cubic meters per day) in 2021.

Following the R Cluster project will be the Satellites Cluster, which is expected to go on-stream in the upcoming year, and is followed by the MJ project in 2022. Peak gas production by combining these three fields is expected to be around 30 mmscmd (1 bcf/d) by 2023, which is expected to be near about 25% of India’s domestic production. This will prove to help reduce India’s dependence on imported gas.