Cairn India, on Monday, announced that it had started drilling of its first exploration well in the Rajasthan block that is predicted to boost the output from this asset to 215,000 barrels per day by March 2014.
In a statement issued here, Cairn India said a block oversight committee, headed by the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), on February 14, gave the go-ahead to the company to drill three wells to further explore new oil reserves in the area. “Following endorsement of the exploration work programme for the Rajasthan Block (RJ-ON-90/1) by the Management Committee less than two weeks ago, Cairn India has commenced drilling of the first exploration well, after a gap of more than four years, in the prolific Barmer Basin,” the statement added. Cairn at present produces 170,000-175,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the Rajasthan block and plans to finish 2013-14 with a production of 200,000-215,000 bpd from the block.
Cairn plans to drill 30 exploration wells by March 2014 and a similar number in the year thereafter.
In-place resrouce base
Cairn is of the view that the Rajasthan block holds an in-place resource base of 7.3 billion barrels that can support 300,000 bpd of output.
