India's Natural Gas Production Surge By 22.7 Per Cent In April As Reliance And BP Ramp Up Output From KG-D6 Block

In a big boost for the nation’s energy independence, April saw the domestic natural gas production surged by 22.7 per cent as Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP Plc ramped up the output from their offshore KG-D6 block, reports Economic Times.

The data released by the government on Friday (21 May) showed that India produced a total of 2.65 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in April, compared to 2.16 bcm of natural gas produced in the same month last year.

The rise was due to nearly trebling of the gas production from the fields operated by the private sector and joint ventures to 710.86 million standard cubic metres. Meanwhile, the production by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)’s fields remained flat at 1.72 bcm.

Having begun production from its second wave of gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block in December last year, RIL and BP Plc had last month also announced the beginning of production from the Satellite Cluster fields.

Meanwhile, even as domestic production of natural gas surged, Indian production of crude oil slipped by two per cent to 2.49 million tonnes.