Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation can go ahead with its 2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) KG-8 Deendayal-West plan as the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has given its nod for the gas project.

The field to be developed by the corporation by investing $1.6 billion is located in the Krishna-Godavari Basin off the coast of Andhra Pradesh.

The Director General of Hydrocarbons V K Sibal, while making a formal announcement on Saturday in Gandhi Nagar, added, "Based on the development plan submitted by GSPC on the basis of exploration work and the geological model analysed by various agencies, we have approved approximately 2 tcf of reserves in KG-8 in Deendayal-West of K G Basin."

The state-owned GSPC can now also go for its much awaited $1.5-billion initial public offer. Earlier, the firm had announced to hit market last year but uncertain market conditions due to slowdown forced it to roll back its plans.

The firm aims to produce about 10-12 million metric standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) of gas from the fields, discovered in June 2005 in the KG/OSN/2001/3 block, by
2011. GSPC owns an area of about 125 sq km in the fields divided into three major blocks - DD-West, DD-North and DD-East.

Gujarat State Secretary (Energy & Petrochemicals), S Jagadeesan said, "The Krishna-Godavari blocks, spread across 1,850 sq km, will help in producing the required quantity of gas not only for Gujarat, but for the entire nation too."