Cairn has $3-billion investment plan on anvil

Cairn India plans to invest $3 billion (over Rs 16,000 crore) over the next three years. The company will explore more oil and gas in its Rajasthan oilfields and other blocks, the company chairman Navin Agarwal told the annual shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

Of this, the company will put more than Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) in the Rajasthan block alone.

The investment will be fully funded from the firm's cash resources and will target adding 530 million barrels of oil to its reserves.

"Over the next three years, through the end of FY2016, your company will invest more than Rs 16,000 crore ($3 billion) in pursuit of finding and producing more oil," he said.

"In Rajasthan, as an example, your company will invest more than Rs 13,000 crore ($2.4 billion) and drill more than 450 wells."

Cairn plans to raise crude oil production from Rajasthan fields by as much as 23 per cent to 215,000 barrels per day by March, 2014.

Rajasthan block currently produces under 175,000 bpd from five fields --- Mangala, Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Raageshwari and Saraswati.

The company plans to drill more than 450 wells in Rajasthan block over a three year period, a significant increase from the current rate of 25 wells drilled in FY'2013.

The wells planned include 100

exploration and appraisal wells, while balance will be development wells to sustain and enhance production volumes.

The E&A wells are aimed to target gross recoverable risked prospective resource of 530 million barrels of oil equivalent. "We have a well-balanced portfolio of exploration, development and producing assets and a clear plan, which will see us aggressively pursue exploration and development opportunities in the months and years ahead," Agarwal said.

In the Rajasthan block, Mangala field is producing at plateau rates of 150,000 bpd. Aishwariya commenced production in March and is expected to ramp up to approved rate of 10,000 bpd over the next few months.

Bhagyam, the second biggest oilfield behind Mangala, is expected to ramp up to the approved rate of 40,000 bpd by the second half of current fiscal.

The aggressive exploration and fast-track development is designed to bring new fields into production in a region where Cairn India has already discovered around 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources but has drilled only a part of its acreage.