Page 8 - AsianOil Week 36 2022

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Ruby FPSO leaves South Korea for

India’s offshore MJ gas project

PROJECTS & THE floating production storage and offload- capacity of 30,000 bpd.
COMPANIES ing (FPSO) vessel ‘Ruby’ has departed from RIL and BP are investing around $5bn in the
Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) facilities in deepwater KG-D6 block, with stakes of 66.6%
South Korea and has begun a 5,000-km voyage and 33.3% respectively. With a well depth of
to India’s Bay of Bengal. There the ship will con- more than 4,000 metres, the MJ is the deepest
tribute to the development of the MJ gas project, gas discovery made in the block, where RIL has
which is being undertaken by Reliance Indus- made a total of 19 gas discoveries over the years. The ship will
tries and BP. Some of the fields have been surrendered or
The Ruby will be used in the KG-D6 Block, returned to the government for failing to meet contribute to
where India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and production deadlines.
BP have already begun production at the R-Clus- Operator RIL started producing from the the development
ter and Satellite Cluster fields, to boost hydrocar- R-Cluster in December 2020 and the Satellite
bon output for India’s domestic demand. Cluster in April 2021. Gas output from those of the MJ gas
Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said two fields for the second quarter of this year project, which is
the MJ field was expected to come on stream amounted to 19 mcm per day. Work in the
by the end of 2022, adding that Ruby would block is aimed at reviving gas production, being undertaken
boost KG-D6 output, raising it to around 30% of which in recent years has been declining.
India’s gas production. He said output from the Together the three fields hold roughly 8 tril- by Reliance
block would help meet India’s growing domes- lion cubic feet (227bn cubic metres) of gas
tic demand and allow for financial savings of resource and are expected to produce around Industries Ltd
around $9bn per year from the country’s fuel 30 mcm per day once the MJ field is fully (RIL) and BP.
import bill. operational.
Construction of the Ruby was kicked off The MJ field lies directly beneath the Dhirub-
2019 by SHI, with a mandate for engineer- hai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 (D-1, D-3) gas fields, the
ing, procurement, construction and installa- largest in KG-D6. D-1 and D-3 were brought
tion (EPCI). The vessel is double-hulled with into production by RIL in April 2009, but ceased
a capacity for 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production in February 2020. The block’s only
liquids and 12.7mn cubic metres per day of oilfield, MA, began producing in September
gas. The vessel has a condensate production 2008, but stopped in 2019.™

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