Domestic natural gas production increased 19.5% to 2,896.7 million standard cubic metre (mscm) in December on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, mainly due to higher production from Reliance Industries (RIL) and BP’s ultra-deep-water field in the KG-D6 Block of the Krishna Godavari basin on the east coast.
The output had fallen 8.1% Y-o-Y to 28,670.6 mscm in FY21 but has subsequently increased 21.5% Y-o-Y to 25,673.9 mscm in the April-December period of the ongoing fiscal. The production also commenced on August 31 from state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) U1B deep-water gas well located in KG-DWN 98/2 block, which has an estimated peak production of 1.2 million standard cubic meter per day (mscmd).
The rise in domestic production coincided with a substantial jump in international liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, resulting in import dependency of natural gas reducing from 55.3% in April-November, 2020 to 47.1% in the corresponding period in 2021. In the first eight months of the fiscal, LNG import volumes fell 2.6% on a Y-o-Y basis to 21,854 mscm.
