Following the government intervention, a joint venture led by Reliance Industries and BG Group is said to hand over drilling infrastructure from an abandoned Indian gas field to ONGC. The three parties are said to have signed a deal on Tuesday that will see the equipment handed over without charge, with Reliance and BG saving on dismantling costs. Indianmandarins has learnt that ONGC plans to invest around Rs100 billion ($1.5 billion) to develop the giant Daman field, which is next to Tapti. The equipment deal may help the public sector company save on costs - buying and setting up equipment from scratch could cost up to Rs 40 billion ($600 million). It may also facilitate cutting short development of the project by three years. The Daman project may start producing from 2018 and is expected to produce 10 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas, or 15 percent of ONGC's current natural gas production. The Tapti infrastructure includes an offshore platform and a 70-kilometre pipeline connecting the platform to ONGC's gas terminal at Hazira in Gujarat.