BP may invest $2 billion in India over next few years

The company has been investing in the Indian market. BP has invested more than USD 8 billion in India in the past seven years. Nearly 95 percent of its investment, or USD 7 billion, has been directed towards exploration and production.

BP India is also working to boost its production along with its partner Reliance Industries (RIL) to produce 10 percent of India’s total gas demand by 2022. The company partners RIL in four hydrocarbon blocks in the country which include — KG D6, R-Series, D55 and NEC 25, in the Mahanadi basin.

"By 2022, we will have all three projects (KG D6, R-Series, D55 ) up and running and we should get to our peak production by 2023 with around 30-35 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd). That’s a billion cubic feet of gas a day and if you look at the forecast for gas demand in India, that is about 10 percent of India’s gas demand by 2022," Mukundan said.

India is the third largest energy consumer in the world after China and the US, however, the energy demand is likely to rise. With the economic expansion in the country, more people would gain access to power, cooking gas and personal transport that would push India’s energy demand.

To meet the increasing energy demand, India is planning to increase the proportion of gas usage in its energy mix to 15 percent from the current 6.5 percent. The world, on an average, consumes 24 percent of gas in the total energy consumption.

Both the firms — BP and RIL — will be starting natural gas production from the R-Series gas field in the KG-D6 block, where BP holds 33.33 percent stake, in Bay of Bengal by 2020. They are also planning to start gas production from other fields will start by 2021.
In 2017, both the firms had announced plans to invest over Rs 40,000 crore in their hydrocarbon blocks. “With the government having allowed a higher gas price of USD 6.78 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) for gas finds in deep water, RIL and BP have decided to work on developing these blocks. This rate is better than the current rate of USD 3.06 per mBtu for fields producing currently,” an analyst tracking RIL told the paper on condition of anonymity.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.