Reliance Industries Ltd.

High water and sand ingress has coerced Reliance Industries to close its seventh well on KG-D6 gas block. The company now awaits regulatory nod to carry out urgent work over to plug the problem responsible for drastic fall in output.

The output of D1&D3 fields, after shutting the seventh well, has now declined to 19.02 million standard cubic meters per day from about 20 mmscmd a month ago.

RIL, on November 29, due to same reason, had shut well B4 on the main producing fields of Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) in KG-D6 block.  D1&D3 are producing less than 22 mmscmd of gas, down from 53-54 mmscmd achieved in March 2010. The company had already shut six out of the 18 wells due to high water and sand ingress.

The largest private business conglomerate - RIL along with BP holds 60% and 30% stake respectively, while Niko Resources has 10%.