Operational and connectivity issues pull down RIL CBM block output

Gas output at Reliance Industries’ coal bed methane (CBM) block has fallen way short of the planned ramp-up due to a combination of operational issues and poor pipeline connectivity. Production at RIL’s CBM block in Madhya Pradesh contracted to 0.94 million metric standard cubic meters a day (mmscmd) in July-September from 1mmscmd in the April-June period.

The poor show by RIL’s CBM block, its depleting KG-D6 block, along with Focus Energy’s underperforming block in Rajasthan, resulted in a 13% decline in natural gas output from fields controlled by private players between April and October, according to the oil ministry’s monthly report on production data.

State-run Oil India’s gas production also declined 7% this year from last year but ONGC, country’s largest oil and gas producer, increased gas output by 3%. India’s natural gas output fell 1% in April-October from last year.


The oil ministry’s monthly report on production data cites “under-performance of CBM wells and the constraint imposed by Iffco on CBM offtake from September 22” as the key reasons for lower output at Sohagpur West CBM Block of Reliance Industries.

Reliance didn’t elaborate on the reasons for output decline, but sources with knowledge of the matter said heavy rains affected second quarter production and the decline has now been arrested.

Production is also hurt due to limited pipeline access. Reliance has agreements with itself to use its CBM output at its facilities in Gujarat and Maharashtra, but doesn’t yet have access to a pipeline that can pump gas from its fields to its plants. So, it has reached an understanding with GAIL, which takes CBM to fertiliser-maker Iffco, the single customer connected to the pipeline, and in turn delivers imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to RIL’s facilities in western India, sources said.

Iffco is GAIL’s customer and variation in the fertiliser maker’s gas requirement impacts the amount of gas RIL’s CBM fields can produce or its facilities can receive from GAIL.

Once more customers join the pipeline, Reliance plans to undertake drilling of new wells and build additional infrastructure to boost its coal bed methane output, sources said.

Another help would come when a pipeline gets ready to pump gas from Reliance Industries’s fields to the western states. At present, gas only travels from the western coast to interiors.

CBM wells also yield a lot of water and Reliance has undertaken dewatering process to achieve the ramp-up, which typically takes 18-36 months, sources said.