Cairn oil and gas output drops 4% in Q2

Company's mainstay Rajasthan block output was marginally lower at 1,67,699 barrels

Cairn India on Monday reported a 4 per cent drop in its oil and gas production during the second quarter ended September 30 after eastern offshore Ravva field output dipped by more than a quarter.

Daily production of oil and gas in July-September averaged 2,06,230 barrels per day, down 3.7 per cent from 2,14,247 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement here.

Its mainstay Rajasthan block output was marginally lower at 1,67,699 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas in the second quarter as compared to 168,126 boepd a year ago.

Krishna Godavari basin Ravva oil and gas field saw output dip 28 per cent to 18,823 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) while its Cambay block production was down 11.5 per cent at 9,877 boepd.

While Rajasthan production was flat as compared to output in the first quarter of 2016-17 fiscal, Ravva and Cambay output was down 4 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Cairn, which is being absorbed by its parent Vedanta Ltd, has three producing oil and gas assets -- Rajasthan block, Cambay block off the Gujarat coast and Ravva in Bay of Bengal.

It said Ravva and Cambay have delivered stable performance with combined gross production of 28,700 boepd, lower by 4.1 per cent q-o-q.

"Ravva witnessed softening of production with volumes averaging at 18,823 boepd. Efforts continued to sustain production rates by targeting incremental opportunities such as optimization of gas lifted wells, addition of new zones, network optimisation and water shutoff by zone isolations, which aided in arresting the natural decline rates," it said.

Production from Cambay was at 9,877 boepd as effective reservoir management practices and production optimization measures helped in reducing the impact of natural decline, the company said.

Cairn said a strong performance by enhanced oil recovery (EOR) scheme at Mangala - the largest oilfield in the Rajasthan block, helped in maintaining production from Rajasthan.

Also, production optimisation and maximisation of liquid handling capacity helped maintain strong performance from Bhagyam and Aishwariya - the other big fields in the Rajasthan block, the company said.

"Continued reservoir management practices and targeting incremental opportunities helped in sustaining production rates at Ravva and Cambay," it said.

For April-September, average production was down to 2,06,342 boepd as compared to 2,16,081 boepd in the same period in the previous financial year. Rajasthan output fell 1.7 per cent to 1,67,323 boepd while Ravva production was down 29.5 per cent to 19,228 boepd.