RIL-BP ‘bubble’ yields 2 deep water gas fields

NEW DELHI: Just four months in a year are available for construction in the Bay of Bengal. Even that window got complicated with constantly changing restrictions on movement of people and material across the globe because of the pandemic. But work bubbles for over 4,000 persons at peak of the project alongside navigating restrictions to source material and people globally helped deliver two deep sea gas fields.

Since 2017, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) along with its JV partner BP had embarked on concurrent development of three deepwater fields in the Krishna Godavari basin block, KG-D6, to monetise 3 trillion cubic feet of resources with an overall capital investment of ₹35,000 crore.

But the pandemic disrupted global supply chains and impaired movement of personnel who are essential for executing a complex project that involved installing equipment and pipelines in water depths of almost two km.

An RIL official said to execute these complex deepwater projects, teams have been working across 34 countries and at peak more than 4,000 persons were deployed offshore and onshore.

“Despite the unprecedented challenge, the joint venture successfully commissioned two out of the three deep-water fields: R Cluster field—India’s first ultradeepwater gas field and Asia’s deepest offshore gas field, in December 2020 and Satellite Cluster in April,” he said. “These fields are contributing about 20% of India’s domestic gas production.” The third deep-water field—KG D6 MJ —is expected to come onstream in 2022-end.