Reliance Industries [Get Quote] along with British Petroleum signed a production-sharing contract for the block KG-DWN-2005/2 with the Indian government on Monday.

The block was offered to the consortium under New Exploration and Licensing Policy (Nelp VII).

RIL has 70 per cent participating interest and BP, which is the operator of the block, holds the remaining 30 per cent.

The block is located 40 km off the east coast of Andhra Pradesh near Kakinada, which is spread over an area of 1,949 sq km.

It is about 100 km away from the existing deep-water discoveries in the KG basin, where giant gas discoveries were made by Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.

"The JV consortium synergises world-class talent, skills, innovation, technology and project management capabilities in deep water exploration and production," said PMS Prasad, president and CEO (Petroleum), RIL.