Petrol Stop - Cairn's Mangala field output crosses 1.25 lakh bpd

Cairn's Mangala field output crosses 1.25 lakh bpd

Sunday, 29 August 2010

29 August 2010;business-standard.com:Jaipur: Crude oil production from the Mangala oilfield in Rajasthan has crossed the 1.25 lakh barrels per day mark and is expected to further increase to 1.75 lakh barrels per day (bpd) by early 2011, a Cairn India spokesman said here today. Crude from the Mangala oilfield -- which holds the biggest onland crude reserves in the country -- is being transported to three buyer companies via the world's longest heated crude pipeline, the spokesman said. This pipeline uses a Skin Effect Heat Management System to keep the Mangala crude in liquid form, as it solidifies at normal temperatures, he explained. Cairn is developing the Mangala oilfield in a joint venture consortium with state-owned oil explorer ONGC. While Cairn has 70 per cent participating interest in the project, ONGC holds the remaining 30 per cent. Production from Mangala will help reduce the country's crude import bill, the spokesman claimed. At present, India imports about 24 lakh barrels of oil per day (bopd), while domestic production is about 7 lakh bopd. Production from Mangala will add about 25 per cent to domestic crude output. Crude production from Mangala has raced to 1.25 lakh barrels per day within a short span of 12 months and by the end of next year, the state of Rajasthan will be one of the largest contributor's to the country's petroleum production. The state will earn Rs 1,100 crore or more as revenue during FY11 on the sales of crude oil from the state, which is likely to increase in the coming years before the reservoir goes into natural decline. According to an estimate, at the peak output of 1.75 lakh bopd, the state will get Rs 8 crore per day as revenue. The Mangala oilfield was discovered by Cairn in 2004. Since then, 25 discoveries have been made, including Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Saraswati and Raageshwari.