Cairn replaces IOCL with HPCL for crude sales from Cambay

Cairn has Lakshmi and Gauri oil and gas fields in the Cambay basin

For the first time, Cairn India has replaced Indian Oil Corporation with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation as the buyer of its crude oil from its block in Cambay basin, Gujarat.

Since the inception of oil production from the block, Indian Oil was lifting crude from the block for its Koyali refinery in Vadodara, Gujarat. But Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is now receiving the crude at its 6.5 million tonnes per annum Mumbai refinery.

Cairn India in its annual report says, "In March 2014, crude oil from the block was evacuated for the first time through a sea route via the Hazira port, where the first cargo was loaded, with 211,000 bbls of crude oil transported to a west coast refinery."

Cairn India, the operator with 40% participating interest in Cambay Basin block CB/OS-2, Gujarat, has Lakshmi and Gauri oil and gas fields. ONGC and Tata Petrodyne Limited partner Cairn India in the field.

"CB-OS/2 oil is light and sweet (low sulphur) and is perfect for Mumbai refinery," said an HPCL official.  

Gas production commenced from the Lakshmi gas field in 2002 and from Gauri in 2004. In 2005 Gauri field commenced crude oil production. Lakshmi and Gauri fields produce over 8,000 barrels of oil per day.

An 82-acre onshore processing facility at Suvali processes natural gas and crude oil from the offshore fields. It has the capacity to process 150 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and 10,000 barrels of oil per day  of crude oil; and includes three crude oil tanks with a total storage capacity of 28,300 bbls as well as two 2.4 MW captive power generation plants.

Since inception in 2002, the Cambay block has produced approximately 19 million barrels of crude and over 218 billion cubic feet of gas. During FY2014, the Cambay block produced 9,735 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The Cambay block's infrastructure is also used for the tolling and processing of ONGC's gas from its North Tapti field and the Gas Balancing Agreement with Niko Resources and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation joint venture.