Reliance Industries Ltd.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has made a natural gas discovery in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast of India. The company has made discovery in the very first well drilled on its D9 block. Reliance holds 90% interest and is the operator of the deep-sea block KG-DWN-2001/1 (D9) while London-listed Hardy holds 10% interest in the block. In 2003, under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Reliance-Hardy combine had won the 11,605 square kilometer (equivalent to 48 North Sea blocks).

The well KGD9-A2 was drilled to a total depth of 4,881 meter with the objective of exploring the play fairway in the Early and Late Miocene Channel Levee Complex in a water depth of approximately 2,700 meter. Three sand reservoirs with a gross thickness of approximately 22 meter were encountered and evaluated by wireline MDT. This discovery, named 'Dhirubhai - 54' has been notified to the Government of India and DGH.

The company did not give reserves the discovery may hold and the potential commerciality of this discovery will be ascertained through more data gathering and analysis. The D9 joint venture expects to drill the fourth exploration well prior to the end of 2011.

The D9 exploration license is located in the Krishna Godavari Basin on the east coast of India and presently covers an area of approximately 8,695 square kilometre. The license’s minimum work programme provides for the drilling of four exploration wells.