India: BP and RIL Bring MJ Offshore Field Online

UK-based oil major BP, and India's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)  on Friday confirmed the start of production from the MJ field offshore India, following testing and commissioning activities. 

The MJ field represents the last of three major new deepwater developments the RIL-BP consortium have brought into production in block KG D6 off the east coast of India, BP said.

The start of gas and condensate production from the MJ field follows the start-up of the R-Cluster field in December 2020 and Satellite Cluster in April 2021. All three developments utilize the existing hub infrastructure for the block. 

Together, the three fields are expected to produce around 30 million standard cubic metres of gas a day (1 billion cubic feet a day) when MJ field reaches peak production. This is expected to account for around one-third of India’s current domestic gas production and meet approximately 15% of India’s demand.

BP chief executive Bernard Looney said bringing those new developments onstream was an important contribution to meeting India’s demand for secure supplies of gas.

Discovered in 2013 and sanctioned in 2019, the MJ field is located in water depths of up to 1,200 meters, about 30 kilometers from the existing onshore terminal at Gadimoga on the east coast of India.  

MJ is a high Pressure and high Temperature (HPHT), gas & condensate field.  The field will produce from eight wells and reach a peak gas production of around 12 MMSCMD gas and 25,000 barrels of condensate per day. 

The development includes a new Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel – the ‘Ruby’ – to process and separate the condensate, gas, water, and impurities, before sending the gas onshore for sale. Condensate is stored on the FPSO before being offloaded to shuttle tankers for supply to Indian refineries. 

RIL is the operator of the KG D6 block with a 66.67% participating interest and bp holds a 33.33% participating interest.