PTI reported that Reliance Industries has shut its seventh well on KG-D6 gas block due to high water and sand ingress as it awaits regulatory nod to carry out urgent work over to plug the problem responsible for drastic fall in output.
According to a status report of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the company had on November 29th shut well B4 on the main producing fields of Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) in KG-D6 block due to high water cut/sanding issues.
DGH in the status report dated December 3rd said that the shutting of the seventh well saw output from D1&D3 fields drop to 19.02 million standard cubic meters per day from about 20 million standard cubic meters per day a month ago. Together with 4.25 million standard cubic meters per day from MA oilfield in the same block, KG-D6 produced 23.27 million standard cubic meters per day of gas in the week ended December 2nd.
RIL has so far drilled 22 wells on D1&D3 fields but has put only 18 on production so far. D1&D3, which started gas production in April 2009, had touched a peak of 55 million standard cubic meters per day in August 2010 before the beginning of water and sand ingress in wells.
The company had closed 6 wells since end 2010 and last month the seventh well was shut.
Sources said that RIL had last year proposed to do work over or maintenance job to revive the sick or closed wells but the Oil Ministry and DGH are yet to give their go ahead.
However, the USD 100 million to USD 120 million spending on work over is part of the capital Budget for current fiscal which along with the same for 2010-11 and 2011-12 is pending approval.
