Cairn India Group will become operator of Block 1 in the Orange basin offshore western South Africa under a farm-in agreement with Petroleum Oil & Gas Corp. of South Africa Ltd. (PetroSA).
Cairn India will own a 60% interest. PetroSA, a subsidiary of state-owned Central Energy Fund, will hold the remainder.
Block 1 covers 19,922 sq km along the northwestern border between South Africa and Namibia. Water depths range from less than 100 m to more than 900 m.
PetroSA acquired 1,500 sq km of 3D seismic data over the block in 2009. One natural gas discovery has been made on the block, which lies between Kudu gas field in Namibian waters to the northwest and the Ibhubesi gas discovery on South African Block 2A to the south.
