INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India's current total consumption of natural gas at end of March 2018 stood at 145 mscmdNew Delhi: India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd and
Reliance Industries Ltd have started discussions with buyers to sell natural gas from their fields in the Bay of Bengal that are expected to
start production over the next three years.The plan is to transport the gas from the east coast to the industrial heart belt of western
India, an ONGC executive told Reuters."We want to use the pipeline to reach customers in West India to sell gas from the KG basin
We are talking to some of them for contracts," Shashi Shankar, chairman and managing director of ONGC, said on the margins of the
International Energy Forum.ONGC plans to use Reliance Industries' 1,375 km pipeline connecting Kakinada on the east coast to Bharuch in
Gujarat in the west.Shankar said ONGC is committed to bring east coast gas onstream by 2019 onwards and ramp up production to around 15
million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd)."We are discussing with customers on a regular basis," he saidReliance built the pipeline in
2009, but has been operating at very low capacity utilisation for several years due to a drastic fall in output from the company's venture
in the Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal.Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries and partner BP Plc, which
together own three natural gas fields next to ONGC's in the east coast, has also started discussions with customers to market the natural
gas, Sashi Mukundan, BP's country head and regional president for India, told Reuters last week.The RIL-BP joint venture is offering
customers contracts ranging from a 10-year tenure, to 5- and 3-year, Mukundan said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target to increase
the share of gas in India's energy mix to 15 percent by 2030 from below 6.5 percent now.The government in February approved a plan by
Reliance Industries and its partner BP to develop two new fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin.This approval followed an earlier clearance
to develop another field called R-Series in the basin."At peak, 2022, we will produce 35 mscmd and would contribute almost 10 percent to
country's demand," Mukundan said.The long term contracts that Reliance-BP joint venture is offering is a sign the companies are committed to
fulfilling their contracts, Mukundan said."If we cannot deliver from our field, we will import and deliver," he said
Between 2021 and 2023, India would be hitting at a level which will be 50 mscmd incremental
So India would be producing in the range of 140 mscmd per day, said Atanu Chakraborty, said the head of Directorate General of Hydrocarbons
Reuters 2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated
