Untapped Vast Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of … Presentations of Second SUBSEA INDIA 2012 Conference Untapped Vast Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of Deep Water basins in India

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Presentations of Second SUBSEA INDIA 2012 Conference

Untapped Vast Hydrocarbon ResourcePotential of Deep Water basins in India

ABSTRACT

India is the fourth largest consumer of hydrocarbons and fifth largest importer in theworld, importing about 75% of its requirement. Hydrocarbons contribute to about 40%of energy requirement in India. This large demand-supply gap is not because of lack ofresources but due to domestic exploration and production activities are not keepingpace with the growing demand.

Out of 3.14MMkm2 area of 26 sedimentary basins in India, 1.39MMkm2 lies in onshoreand 0.40MMkm2 in offshore shallow water, while 1.35MMkm2 is in three deep water(>200m isobath to EEZ) areas along the east coast in Bay of Bengal, west coast inArabian Sea and south-east in Andaman sea which offers vast hydrocarbon resourcepotential as we have just touched the tip of iceberg by initiating exploration and productionactivities and major surprises are yet to come.

Since the first encouraging giant gas discovery of KG-D6 in deep water along eastcoast in KG basin during 2002, a number of discoveries followed in deep waterexploration blocks offered through NELP bidding rounds, especially in east coast basinsof Bengal, Mahanadi, Cauvery and Andaman also besides KG basin which are quiteexciting and challenging and thus indicate the high prospectivity of Indian deep waterbasins.

The new discoveries are more of gas than oil worldwide and so as the case withIndia. Recent discovery of giant Leviathan gas field in deep water of Mediterranean Seain Israel during 2010 estimating about 17tcf of gas and 600MMb of oil is considered asworld’s largest in last decade after India’s KG-D6 in 2002. As per USGS estimates,Levantine Basin comprising Leviathan Field holds mean recoverable reserves of 1.7Bbof oil and 122tcf of gas. Similarly, recent deep water gas discoveries in Rovuma Basin,Mozambique are estimated to hold about 100tcf of recoverable gas.

There are no separate estimates for hydrocarbon resource of deep water basins inIndia either by USGS or other international agencies, may be due to unavailability ofdata. However, estimates by the author during 2003 after encouraging deep water gasdiscoveries in KG basin though the study entitled, “India’s emergence towards selfsufficiency in hydrocarbons with new E&P opportunities” total hydrocarbon resources inIndian basins prognosticated at 32 billion tons with recoverable resources of 12 billiontons, which was substantiated by DGH also.

KDMIPE, ONGC estimated hydrocarbon resources in deep water basins at 7 billiontons, while DGH estimates are of 9 billion tons. However, the author’s study indicates

Dev Dutt Sharma, Principal Geologist, Oilex Limited, Australia

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that Indian deep water basins hold about 11 billion tons of hydrocarbon resources ofwhich 7 billion tons oil and 4 billion tons oil equivalent gas. Of these, recoverableresources are conservatively estimated at about 1 billion tons of oil and 3 billion tons oilequivalent of gas, which comes to 3 trillion m3 of gas or 106 tcf of recoverable gas. Ifdeveloped, this has gas production potential of about 410 MMm3/d for 20 years, againstthe projected gas demand of about 550MMm3/d as per Hydrocarbon Vision 2025 byGovt. of India. This shows that deep water basins of India have enormous potentialwhich can contribute to about 75% of growing demand alone by 2025.

Though countries like Brazil and India having geologically similar prospective acreagestarted awarding exploration blocks through PSC’s almost at the same time during 1997and 1998, E&P activities in Brazil were fast, which contributes to about 22% of worlddeep water production and that is expected to grow 50% by 2020. Thus, we have toaccelerate our E&P activities in indigenous basins, with special focus on deep waterbasins, which have prolific production potential to bridge the demand-supply gap andreduce the imports to relieve the burden of foreign exchange crunch.

Bay of Bengal is visualised to be another Gulf of Mexico or Campos basin of Brazilfor India while considering regional geological analogy of “Gulf of Mexico, Brazil andWest Africa” which is ‘golden corridor of discovery’ in Atlantic Sea similar to “Bay ofBengal, Indonesia and Australia” and that is going to be emerged as ‘golden corridor ofdiscovery’ in Indian Ocean with new E&P activities. Similarly, West Coast Deep Waterarea of India in Arabian Sea comprising Kutch-Saurashtra, Mumbai-Ratnagiri and Kerala-Konkan basins is suitably located along ‘golden corridor of discovery’ of “Mozambique,Tanzania and India” but yet to be proved. We have to intensify our deep water explorationactivity along west coast while chasing the leads from shallow water discoveries likeKutch-Saurashtra and producing fields like Mumbai-Bassein as Indus delta is extendingfar deep into the Arabian Sea like Ganges in Bay of Bengal.

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About the AuthorMr. Dev Dutt Sharma, holds M.Sc. degree in Geology, additionally MBAwith over 32 years of integrated experience in upstream oil & gas fromexploratory discovery of a new prospect to field appraisal and develop-ment resulting in reserves accretion and production enhancement whileworking with national and international oil companies of repute like ONGC,Reliance Industries and Qatar Petroleum from Geologist to Senior Man-agement level.

He has given special thrust to gas exploration in India from both conventional andunconventional resources like Coalbed Methane, Tight Gas Sands and Shale Gas hav-ing low resistivity and low permeability while adopting innovative concepts and newtechnologies of formation evaluation and reservoir development.

His pioneering works include exploration of Unconventional Shale reservoirs ofCambay Basin in Wadu-Kalol, Sanand-Jhalora, Indrora-Limbodra, Nandej-Nawagametc. while applying new concept of Shale Resistivity Ratio for identification of commer-cial zones within the monotonous shale section and new technologies of directionaldrilling, cluster drilling and stimulation/ hydrofracturing.

He has been associated with mega research projects like Standardisation ofStratigrahy of Cambay Basin and Evaluation of its Hydrocarbon Potential while givingthrust to shallow Oilgo-Miocene Babaguru and Tarapur formations and deeper Eo-Pa-leocene Cambay Shale and Olpad formations including fractured Deccan Trap reser-voir.

Presently, he is associated with Oilex Ltd for development of Tight Hydrocarbonreservoirs in Cambay Field, the first discovery field of Cambay Basin by applying newtechnologies of formation evaluation, horizontal drilling, multistage fracturing and mi-croseismic monitoring for production enhancement, which have wider application inother basins of India also like Krishna-Godavari, Cauvery, Assam-Arakan, Rajasthan,Gondwana and Vindhyan having tight hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Documents

Untapped Vast Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of … Presentations of Second SUBSEA INDIA 2012 Conference Untapped Vast Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of Deep Water basins in India