Pushed back: oil production from D6 awaits Aker FPSO
D6 flows wait on Aker floater
India's Reliance has deferred starting oil production from the D6 Block in the Krishna Godavari basin off India's east coast from June to July or August, a company source said today.
"We had the internal target to produce oil from June, but now we think it should begin sometime in July-August as we are yet to get a (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) from Aker," the source told Reuters.
Reliance had earlier said production from the block's MA-1 field was likely to begin in the second half of this year.
A company spokesman declined comment.
The floater the company is waiting for, to be supplied by Aker Floating Production, has a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day and can store up to 1 million barrels of oil, the official said.
He said the company had drilled seven to eight development wells, but to begin with it would aim to produce sweet oil from two or three wells to meet initial targeted output of 20,000 bpd.
"Sometime next year, we will raise the production to 40,000 bpd," he added.
Reliance aims to produce 240 million to 350 million cubic feet of gas a day from the MA-1 field from the second half of the year to next year, when gas production from two other fields in the block, D1 and D3, will also begin.
Reliance is operator of the D6 Block, with a 90% stake, while Canada's Niko Resources holds 10%.