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Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, May 4 Essar Exploration and Production Ltd — a wholly owned subsidiary of Essar Oil — has rescheduled its drilling campaign in Myanmar. According to the revised plan, the company will start drilling in both onshore (L) and contiguous offshore block (A-2) in September-October.

Essar planned to commence a two-well drilling campaign in the onshore L block in early 2008, before the monsoon hits the country. Drilling in the offshore block was slated to commence after the monsoon. The plan, however, suffered a setback primarily due to delay in receiving location clearance from the Myanmar authorities. While clearances for onshore drilling locations were recently received, the approaching monsoon has forced the company to reschedule the campaign.

“Monsoon is extremely heavy in this part of Myanmar. Accordingly, we have decided to commence the drilling in onshore and offshore block (during) September-October, once the rains are over,” Mr S.R. Agarwal, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Essar E&P, told Business Line.

The shallow water offshore block A-2 has an average water depth of 40-50 metres. Both the blocks are located along the Rakhine coast of Indian Ocean and in the vicinity of oil and gas discoveries in Bangladesh and Assam in India. Essar E&P has completed aero-magnetic survey in the three onshore blocks in Madagascar, spread over 30,000-sq km area. The data interpretation is still on.

Meanwhile, the company has finalised plans to launch a 15-test well drilling programme at the Ranigunj CBM block in West Bengal, in mid-May. The company has already completed the core-hole drilling in the block in the phase-I of the minimum work programme.

“We have received the environmental clearance for launching the drilling campaign recently. We are hopeful of starting in mid-May,” Mr Agarwal said. The company has already moved one rig to Ranigunj for the same reason and another rig may be deployed shortly.

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