By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 28 -- India's government has approved a commerciality declaration for three 2007 gas and oil discoveries by Cairn Energy PLC in Rajasthan, northwestern India.
The declaration covers the Kameshwari West 2, 3, and 6 discoveries and an 822 sq km development area that was part of the northern appraisal area on the RJ-ON-90/1 license (See map, OGJ, Jan. 23, 2006, p. 38).
Cairn Energy noted that the No. 2 and 3 discoveries opened a new play in the Paleocene Barmer Hill-Lower Dharvi Dungar sands on the basin's western margin.
Kameshwari West-2, some 56 km south of Mangala oil field, cut 18.2 m of net pay in a 40-m gross interval of Lower Dharvi Dungar with a gas-oil contact at 1,127 m true vertical depth subsea and an oil-water contact at 1,147 m TVD ss. It flowed 33° gravity oil with gas.
Kameshwari West-3, just 10.6 km north of Kameshwari West-2, cut up to 16 m of gas pay in tight Lower Dharvi Dungar reservoir rock in a potential column of more than 100 m. TD is 1,499 m measured depth.
Kameshwari West-6, about 22 km northeast of Kameshwari West-3, tested 2.39 MMscfd of gas.
Cairn Energy, operator with 70% interest, and its partner Oil & Natural Gas Corp. with 30% now have 3,111 sq km under long-term contract on the Rajasthan license, of which the Mangala field development plan covers 1,859 sq km and the Bhagyam field development plan covers 430 sq km.
Cairn Energy in December gauged a discovery at Raageshwari East 1/1Z, the first well in its 2008-09 exploration program.
The well cut 10 m of net oil pay in an 81-m gross column of sands in the Eocene Thumbli formation below 1,425 m. It also found 1.4 m of gas pay in the Eocene Akli formation at 1,153 m TVD ss. It stabilized at 500 b/d of 40° gravity oil and 400 Mcfd on a 1-in. choke from a 4-m interval in Upper Thumbli sand.
The companies plan to start production through a new pipeline to the Gujarat coast in late 2009.
