Cairn to undertake wildcat drilling in KG basin

After the humongous success of the Barmer oil fields in Rajasthan, Cairn India is betting big on wildcat drilling in the oil and gas-rich KG basin.

The country's second-largest oil and natural gas explorer is now set to undertake wildcat drilling at KG-ONN-2003/1 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin soon, say sources close to the development. Wildcat drilling is the process of drilling for oil in an unexplored area.

According to these sources, the Cairn-ONGC JV is planning to start work on at least two wildcat wells in the Krishna-Godavari basin before the end of August.

"The work has begun. The company has already carried out two seismic programmes in the contract area. Over 500-line km of 2D seismic acquisition was swiftly followed by shooting of another 255 sq km of 3D seismic programme," sources told PTI.

In Block KG-ONN-2003/1 Cairn India has 49 per cent stake and is the operator, while ONGC holds remaining 51 per cent participating interest. The block is spread over more than 3,288 sq km in the KG basin.

It may be noted that Barmer in Rajasthan has seen some successful wildcat drilling campaigns the company undertook.

The Cairn-ONGC JV’s latest on-shore drilling programme is being carried out in the KG Basin block, which has not been explored till date. The drilling sites for the latest exploratory wells are located in Guntur district.

The area in which the wildcat drilling occurs randomly not progressively. Due to the uncertainty of wildcat drilling companies are exposed to high risks. The JV, which has finalised five prospects in the drilled area, the first of these wells (Nagaram-1) commenced in February 2010, had to abandon in March as it turned out to be a dry well.

The scrip of Cairn India closed at Rs 313.60 today on the BSE up marginally.