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The operating committee of the Rajasthan oilfields that comprises nominees of Cairn India and ONGC have been asked to submit a proposal for scaling up output.
Management committee meets
A decision to this effect was taken at the management committee (MC) meeting of the Barmer, Rajasthan oil block, sources told Business Line . In the block, Cairn holds 70 per cent stake, while ONGC has 30 per cent. This meeting was significant, as it follows the recent announcement by the Petroleum Ministry that the Government has decided to allow exploration in mining lease areas, which earlier was restricted.
The MC that oversees the operations of the block met on Friday to consider further exploration plan in the oilfields, that will help in scaling up production from the current 175,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to 300,000 bpd over a period. This increased output includes more exploration activity in the producing Bhagyam fields in the block. The company is looking at taking Bhagyam output from the current 22,000 bpd to 40,000 bpd.
The MC comprises the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons and Petroleum Ministry representatives, as well as nominees of the contractors (Cairn India and ONGC). Exploration companies have been pursuing the Petroleum Ministry to allow exploration activity within an area that has been delineated after discoveries of hydrocarbons for production. Earlier, the Petroleum Ministry was resisting permission, as it felt that allowing this went beyond what has been prescribed in the production sharing contract.
However, after consultations with the Law Ministry, it took a policy decision to allow activity in these areas.
Cairn has been saying that its studies and assessments show potentially higher resource base in Rajasthan in 3,111 sq.km., which has been delineated by the company from the original 11,000 sq. km. In this 3,111 sq. km., Cairn was not allowed to undertake exploratory work, till the recent approval came.
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