International oil major BP along with its partner Reliance Industries (RIL) will invest $5-10 billion to quadruple natural gas production by 2020, BP India head Sashi Mukundan said at the 12th Petro India conference.
The JV currently produces around 11.8 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) of gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 block. ?The production could rise to 40, 50, 60 mscmd by 2020,? he said.
BP, which in 2011 invested $7.2 billion in India, sees the new production coming from the 11 satellite discoveries in the KG-D6 block, five finds in NEC-25 and two discoveries in Cauvery block. Mukandan said an opportunity awaits the JV to quadruple production by 2020 as they rework the fields and get into the next phase of development of already discovered resources.
?We had two discoveries in the Cauvery. We are preparing to drill wells next year. All these together give us the feel that there is lot of potential,? he said, adding, ?Our main purpose is to make sure that we continue producing from D1 and D3. If we get the right regulatory framework, we would see much more production.?
Mukundan also said that the JV alone could reveal a prize of over $100-150 billion for India by avoiding costly imports. ?However, we need to have a clear pricing policy. This is important to achieve a broader development of KG-D6. We have got a whole bunch of new discoveries which we need to bring on (to production),? Mukundan added.