Indian private-sector refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) and BP have raised gas output from "difficult fields" located in the KG basin off India's east coast during April-June.
RIL and BP ramped up production from the fields to 20.9mn m³/d of gas, as the two companies commissioned the MJ field during the period, RIL said.
The firm has two more wells to come on stream and is on track to achieve gas output from the KG-D6 block at 30mn m³/d during 2023-24, accounting for 30pc of India's overall gas production, it added.
India produced 34bn m³ of natural gas in April 2022-March 2023, preliminary oil ministry data show.
RIL and BP have signed several gas sale and purchase agreement with fertilizers, city gas distribution, power, refinery, steel, and ceramics after conducting two rounds of e-auctions for a cumulative volume of 11mn m³.
Their gas price realization also remains higher by 11pc on the year at $10.81/mn Btu during April-June, but was lower by 5.1pc on the quarter as the government lowered the ceiling price at $12.12/mn Btu from $12.42/mn Btu earlier.
RIL and BP have jointly developed three main gas fields in the KG basin. RIL owns around 67pc of the KG-D6 fields, with the rest owned by BP.
RIL expects gas price volatility to continue this year, particularly because of high storage levels in Europe and higher nuclear output from Japan and France as well as demand recovery in China.
RIL posted a consolidated net profit of Rs182.58bn during April-June, down by 6pc on the year owing to weak oil-to-chemical (O2C) demand following a decline in fuel cracks, weak petrochemical demand and a fall in crude oil prices.
RIL's revenue from the O2C business was at Rs1.33 trillion over April-June, down by nearly 18pc from a year earlier, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
RIL's refinery throughput was at 19.7mn t (396,000 b/d) during April-June, largely unchanged from January-March and from April-June 2022.
It said that the impact of the cyclone Biparjoy was minimized because of depleted inventory and as two shutdowns of the FCC hydrotreater and Dahej cracker had been completed in the April-June quarter.
