The Hindu Business Line : Reliance upbeat on Cauvery Basin prospects

Drilling for oil, gas
RIL had deployed two rigs in the block –— Deepwater Frontier and Actinia.
The drilling activity in the area was delayed due to shortage of rigs.

Richa Mishra

New Delhi, July 13

The success of Krishna Godavari Basin is most likely to be carried forward by Reliance Industries Ltd in its first exploratory venture in the Cauvery Basin. If initial indications are anything to go by, the company is expecting good prospects in its deepwater block located in northern part of the Cauvery Basin.

RIL had moved further south into the Basin in search of hydrocarbons in May and initial testing in the block has shown encouraging results, sources told Business Line.

The company had started drilling two wells in the Cauvery Basin block CY-DWN-2001/2. “Drilling activity in one of the wells has been completed and currently testing phase is going on,” sources said.

Once the tests are completed, the results would be sent for third party audit, and thereafter the company would inform the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), they added.

According to industry experts, testing is taken up only when there are indications of hydrocarbons in the well.

RIL had deployed two rigs in the block –— Deepwater Frontier and Actinia.

It had shifted the rig from the Krishna Godavari Basin. The rig Deepwater Frontier has completed the drilling activity and currently testing is taking place.

RIL is the operator of the block. Initially it was holding 90 per cent participating interest, with Hardy Exploration & Production (India) Inc holding the rest.

Subsequently, Hardy pulled out and RIL now holds 100 per cent interest. RIL officials maintained that it was still premature to predict the prospects from the block.

Although the timeframe for phase one exploratory activity of the block ended on April 2, RIL is hopeful that with the recent move of the Government to merge the first two phases for NELP III and IV, it would get an additional two years to finish its work. Sources said, it has been indicated that RIL can go ahead with its activity as it is likely to get the benefit of the decision.

Seismic survey

RIL has already conducted the 2D seismic survey of the block. The water depth in the area of drilling is around 1,200 metres, and the drilling activity in the area was delayed due to shortage of rigs. The company started drilling activity on May 15.

The rig deployed for the exploration activities reached on May 13.

The area of the block is 14,325 sq km. The Cauvery basin underlies the South-Eastern coast of India and the North-Eastern coast of Sri Lanka. According to experts, it is a passive margin rift basin and several small oil discoveries in the onshore blocks have been made, the first of which began production in 1986.

State-owned ONGC has already tested success in the Cauvery Basin.

In 2006-07 ONGC had produced 0.38 million tonnes of oil and 900 million standard cubic metres of gas from its Cauvery assets.

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