Cairn to start oil flow from Rajasthan fields in 2007

Oct. 26, 2004
Cairn Energy PLC, Edinburgh, received formal government approval of its declaration of commerciality of several discoveries on 5,000-acre Block RJ-ON-90/1 in Rajasthan, India, near the border with Pakistan.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Oct. 26 -- Cairn Energy PLC, Edinburgh, received formal government approval of its declaration of commerciality of several discoveries on 5,000-acre Block RJ-ON-90/1 in Rajasthan, India, near the border with Pakistan.

The approval secures Cairn a development area that totals 1,858 sq km in the Thar desert and includes all development, appraisal, and exploration rights.

The area takes in the Mangala, N-A, Saraswati, and Raageshwari discoveries and the unappraised GR-F, Kameshwari, and N-R discoveries (see map, OGJ, Feb. 2, 2004, p. 44).

Mangala and N-A fields are to start producing in the last quarter of 2007, eventually reaching 100,000 b/d. Cairn said India produces 650,000 b/d, of which 50,000 b/d comes from Cairn-operated Ravva field in the Krisha-Godavari basin off eastern India. The country also imports 2 million b/d.

Mangala has an estimated 1 billion bbl of oil in place, as assessed by DeGolyer & MacNaughton, Dallas consulting engineers. Cairn expects to submit a Mangala development plan to the government in first half 2005.

Cairn is running five rigs and acquiring seismic surveys "to ascertain the scale and size of the overall oil and gas fields on the Rajasthan acreage."

Front-end engineering design is under way to determine how best to develop the fields and deliver the crude to buyers, with decisions likely in early 2005.

India's state Oil & Natural Gas Corp. has 90 days in which to acquire a 30% interest in the overall development.