Mumbai, June 16: Reliance Industries has struck oil at an offshore block in Yemen which is expected to be equivalent to about half of RIL's share of crude oil from Panna-Mukta-Tapti offshore fields in Bombay High region, chairman Mukesh Ambani said here today. The total in place gas volumes in the Krishna Godavari Basin has doubled to 14 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 300 million tonnes (mt) of crude oil, he told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting.


Stating that RIL would invest Rs 1,500 crore (US $ 300 million) in the next two years for oil and gas exploration, Ambani said the present market prices to the consumer (of the oil and gas discoveries) would mean an incremental revenue of Rs 10,000 crore every year, equivalent to 15 per cent of the current revenues.

He said that less than 20 per cent of the Dhirubhai block in kg basin has been explored and "we are still to work on 80 per cent of the area".
Ambani said along with exploration, RIL was building gas transmission infrastructure to make it available to industrial and household consumers by 2006.

RIL would also invest significantly in its core petrochemical business to make additional capacity of two mt per annum, he added.
Bureau Report