Cairn India to explore oil

Invests US $ 100 m:

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

Cairn India will invest US $ 100 million for the oil exploration in Block SL2007/01/001 in the Mannar Basin, which covers 3400 sq. km, at depths between 200 to 1800 metres. The operations will commence within six months time.

Executive Director and CFO of Cairn India Indrajit Banerjee said they will commence operations under a detailed plan. “The work programme includes proposals to acquire 5000 kilometers of 2D, 1000 sq. km of 3D seismic and drill three wells in the initial three years of the eight year exploration period.

He was speaking at a media conference held yesterday after signing the agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and Cairn India for the exploration licence to explore oil and natural gas in the Mannar Basin.

“However oil exploration is a risky business and we can not say how many barrels will be there till we complete exploration stage. Company expects to deploy world’s latest technologies and best practices for this oil exploration project,” he said.

Cairn India operates two processing plants, 11 offshore platforms, 200 kilometeres of sub- sea pipelines an has exploration interest in 14 blocks across India with a net operated production of approximately 75000 barrels of oil and gas equivalent he said.

Cairn India’s approach has been engineering-led with the innovative application of cutting -edge technologies across it assets.

It has a proven track record of delivering development projects quickly and at low coast as well as for being a low cost operator he said.

Cairn has now been in South Asia for more than a decade and having developed a very good understanding of the regional geology, we have made over 40 oil and gas discoveries to date in India including the world class Mangala discovery onshore in the deserts of Rajasthan in North West India which currently has an estimated total oil in place of 3.7 billion barrels he said.

Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Development Resources A.H.M Fowzie said there is no need to worry on security and the block is out of danger. “Sri Lanka will soon call for the tenders to commence oil explorations in remaining blocks,” Minister said.