(Recasts, Adds details)
By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI, July 16 (Reuters) - India's Gujarat State
Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has found more gas in its block off the
east coast from where private firm Reliance Industries is
expected to pump gas in September, officials told Reuters.
The KG-Basin block, where state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp
<ONGC.BO> has also found gas, has huge reserves and output from
Reliance's <RELI.BO> field is expected to double supplies in the
energy-hungry country.
"They have informed us about the new gas discovery. It is in
a new well-- KG-22," upstream regulator V. K. Sibal said. "From
the initial observations, production testing is not yet
complete, reservoir quality seems to be good," Sibal said.
A GSPC official confirmed the find.
"We have found gas in the KG-22 well. Initial flow has been
27.3 mmscfd (million cubic feet a day) through a choke size of
28/64 inches," GSPC General Manager M.Y. Farooqui told Reuters.
But Sibal said the find required further testing to
establish if the flow of gas was steady at that rate.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce
the discovery on Thursday.
GSPC along with Jubilant Enpro and Canada's GeoGlobal
Resource <GGR.N> was awarded the licence to explore the block in
2003. GSPC with 80 percent stake is the operator of the block.
In July last year, Sibal said GSPC reported 1.38 TCF as
proven reserves from its block in the Krishna Godavari Basin on
the basis of one well, while in 2005 the Gujarat state
government said the block could have reserves of 20 TCF.
In April, banking sources said that GSPC was planning an IPO
to raise $1.5 billion this year. [ID:nBOM292659].
Within a decade of its formation, GSPC has grown from
operatorship of small fields in Gujarat in northwest Indian to a
large oil and gas exploration firm with more than 20 exploration
areas within India and around half a dozen abroad.
India, Asia's third-largest oil consumer, is encouraging the
use of natural gas to control its oil import bill and rein in
inflation but supply is far short of demand.
Goldman Sachs estimates the share of natural gas in India's
coal-dominated energy mix will double to 18 percent by 2015 and
stabilise at 20 percent by 2025.
(Editing by James Jukwey)
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Keywords: GUJARATSTATE GAS