Reliance's 'discovery man' gets Padma Shri

Reliance Industries found huge natural gas reserves in the very first well it drilled, which subsequently proved to be the world's second largest deepwater discovery in the last decade.

But few know the man behind the 2002 discovery in block KG-D6 in Krishna Godavari basin, about 200-km from the Andhra coast.

President A P J Abdul Kalam is conferring the Padma Shri, one of the country's highest civilian honours, on Ravi Narayan Bastia for finding the energy-hungry nation's second biggest gas find to date.

Subsequent to the Dhirubhai-1 discovery, Reliance made 16 more finds in the block KG-DWN-98/3 (also known as KG-D6) in Bay of Bengal. The block is estimated to hold an in-place reserve of about 35 trillion cubic feet and when the first two of the finds in the block go on stream mid-2008, the nation's 80 million standard cubic meters per day gas deficit will be wiped out.

Under Bastia - the only person in the group to have been conferred one of the four highest civilian awards, Reliance also found oil in the block and made a sizeable discovery in block NEC-25 off the Orissa coast.

When Bastia joined Reliance in 1996 from state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the late Dhirubhai Ambani was giving shape to energy foray of the company, which till then was into petrochemicals and textiles.

"We were a handful of people in the exploration and production division. Apart from being a sleeping partner in Panna/Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields, Reliance had no experience in this hugely risky business. But Dhirubhai Ambani encouraged us to go into areas never attempted before," says a mild Bastia.

Dhirubhai Ambani, who had no geologist training, saw huge potential in offshore regions as the country had hydrocarbon reserves on both eastern and western side.

"A couple of years later, the first round of auction of exploration areas under New Exploration Licensing Policy happened. We bid and won KG-D6 block. Using 3D seismic we saw huge hydrocarbon 'plays' (potential) and our assessment proved right when in the very first well we found huge gas reserves," he said.

Today, Bastia looks after exploration in 36 blocks that Reliance has in India and nine abroad. "Our job is to create value (discover oil and gas) and hand it over to another group which develops the finds."

The company's focus is now on deepwater acreages in the East coast and Bastia feels 3-4 big finds may happen over the next couple of years.

Padma Shri is given by the government to Indian citizens to recognise their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity. Bastia has won the award in the science and technology category.