Gas output from KG-D6 block would increase by 2014: BP

Close on the heels of getting nod to invest $7.2 billion in Reliance Industries ' oil and gas properties, BP Plc on Wednesday said output from Mukesh Ambani-run firm's KG-D6 gas fields can rise only in 2014 after new fields in the area are quickly brought into production.

BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley, on his first trip to India after approval of the alliance with Reliance, took rounds of the corridors of power, assuring ministers and officials about "commitment to work to help meet the growing energy demand" of India.

Dudley, with Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani by his side, first met Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and then Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi.

The duo, who were also shadowed by Reliance's head of oil and gas business PMS Prasad, called on Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Before his Thursday visit to the KG-D6 fields, which has been at the centre of BP's $7.2 billion investment to buy a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas properties held by the Mukesh Ambani-run firm, Dudley said the block holds the resources to get back to the planned 80 million standard cubic metres per day of gas output.

"D6 is a golden block," he said, adding the resources were scattered in different groupings and accumulations and BP along with Reliance was working with the government to get approval for producing gas from them.