The Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin is a major peri-cratonic passive margin basin located on India's east coast, encompassing the deltaic plains of the Krishna and Godavari rivers in Andhra Pradesh and the adjacent offshore area of the Bay of Bengal. As a geological concept, it is a proven petroliferous basin with a total resource base estimated at 1130 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of oil and oil-equivalent gas. The basin's origin is tied to the rifting along the eastern continental margin of the Indian Craton, which began in the early Mesozoic era, leading to the deposition of thick sediments ranging in age from Late Carboniferous to Pleistocene.
The basin's mechanism for hydrocarbon accumulation involves a complex system of horsts and grabens filled with up to 5 km of sediments, with commercial oil and gas found in reservoirs from the Permian to the Pliocene. Exploration efforts began with geological mapping in 1958, and the first gas discovery was made by ONGC in 1983 at Razole Well No. 1. The basin gained prominence with the discovery of India's largest natural gas reserves in the D-6 block by Reliance Industries in 2002. The KG Basin connects directly to India's energy security strategy, as its exploration and production activities are governed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and are a key focus of national policies like the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
Recently, the basin has been central to the government's efforts to boost domestic production, with ONGC investing $10 billion in developing multiple deepwater projects in the KG Basin. Furthermore, the basin is a focus area for the new Samudra Manthan national program, approved in 2026, which allocates significant public funding for offshore exploration, including ₹43,200 crore for drilling 60 exploratory deepwater wells over five years. The basin has also been the subject of a long-running legal dispute between the Centre and companies like Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd, and Niko (NECO) Ltd over alleged gas migration from one block to another, with the Supreme Court agreeing in May 2026 to explore an amicable settlement.