Cairn Lanka, a fully-owned subsidiary of Cairn India, has discovered natural gas reserves in the very first well it has drilled in the western coast of Sri Lanka. This is the first well to be drilled in Sri Lanka in 30 years and also first hydrocarbons discovery in that country.

The company is investing more than $100 million to explore commercial hydrocarbon deposits in the 3,000 square kilometre block in depths ranging from 200 to 1,800 metres.

The block

Block SL-2007-01-001 is located in Mannar Basin, which is south of the prolific oil and gas producing Cauvery basin. Further drilling will be required to establish the commerciality of the discovery, a company official said, adding that the first well drilled has shown presence of hydrocarbons – predominantly gas-bearing with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential.

According to industry sources, this discovery opens up the Mannar Basin for potential hydrocarbon finds.

This Block is a frontier basin with no deepwater well penetrations in Sri Lanka. Multiple prospective structural and stratigraphic plays had been identified during the seismic programme, the company said.

Cairn had started the drilling programme in August this year. Cairn had hired a 5th generation drillship for the purpose. The company has awarded contract to Japan Drilling Company for drillship ‘Chikyu' which is undertaking the drilling activity. The company has to drill two more exploratory wells.

Cairn Lanka set up in 2008 has been acquiring seismic data, and carrying out meteorological ocean and currents surveys in trying to pin-point a possible place and time to start drilling.

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