A day after announcing the partnership with global energy sector contractor Halliburton Offshore Services to increase the recoverable hydrocarbon reserve from its offshore assets, Vedanta’s Cairn Oil and Gas on Wednesday said it has joined hands with international energy technology provider Baker Hughes to enhance crude oil recovery from its Bhagyam oilfield located at the Barmer site in Rajasthan.
Under the partnership with Baker Hughes, Cairn will aim to increase the recoverable reserve of the Bhagyam field to 250 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) from the present level of 45 mboe. “We have been emphasising the need to introduce fresh technology to augment production from old and ageing fields that today comprise around 90% of India’s capacities,” Prachur Sah, CEO of Cairn Oil and Gas said.
Domestic crude production has been falling with the ageing of existing fields and muted response from the industry to take up new projects, mainly due to a lack of adequate incentives. Fields run under production sharing contracts by private developers such as Cairn contribute about 25% of the country’s domestic output while 65% is produced by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and the remaining by state-run Oil India. The country imports about 85% of its crude oil requirement and the government are eyeing ways to increase domestic output.
Cairn’s recent agreement with Halliburton aims to increase the recoverable reserve from its offshore assets, including the Ravva field off the Andhra Pradesh coast, Cambay block on the western coast, and several newly acquired blocks through bidding under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy regime. Cairn and Halliburton have also agreed to begin shale exploration in the Lower Barmer Hills area of western Rajasthan. The company aims to double its capacity and contribute 50% of the country’s domestic crude production.
