Government gets first share of profit from KG-D6 gas field

The government has earned its first profit share from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields, with the operator and its Canadian partner paying $2.74 million for the first quarter, minister of petroleum and natural gas Murli Deora informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The government has received payment of $0.51 million towards government's share of profit petroleum on commercial production of crude oil in the block KG-DWN/98/3 for the period from September 2008 to March 2009.

Reliance Industries Limited and its partner Niko Resources Limited together have invested $5.98 billion up to March 2009 on development of two major natural gas discoveries and one crude oil discovery, the minister said.

In reply to other queries, the minister stated that in 2008-09, consumption of petroleum products in the country was of the order of 133.4 million tonnes as against the domestic crude oil production of 33.5 million tonnes.

The oil import dependence of the country stood at about 75 per cent and, as per planning commission estimates, the country's requirement of crude oil is likely to be in the range of 350-486 million tonnes with import dependence of 90-93 per cent in 2030, considering economic growth and crude oil supply in the country, the minister said.

Currently, natural gas production from the block KG-DWN-98/3 is about 31 MMSCMD, which accounts for 25 per cent of total natural gas production of the country.