Cairn starts work to ramp up ouput from oil field

Cairn India today said it has started to inject polymer into wells to raise output from its largest oil field in the prolific Rajasthan block, Mangala.
"Cairn today initiated polymer injection at the Mangala field. Mangala enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, which is amongst the largest polymer flood EOR programmes in the world, commenced well ahead of the guidance provided," the company said in a statement here.
The polymer injection activity would gradually be ramped up.
The Mangala polymer flood enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme has a capex of about USD 600 million. About 100 additional wells have been planned for the project.

The EOR has potential to raise output from the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya -- the largest of the 36 discoveries in the Rajasthan block, by 10 to 15 per cent.
Polymer flood is a proven technology that has been successfully used by the Chinese. Daqing Oil in China which has similar oil as in Rajasthan, has been successfully implementing polymer flood.

ONGC has implemented polymer flood in a couple of fields in Gujarat. However, the Mangala Polymer flood EOR project is of a much larger scale.
"Cairn India had recognised the potential for chemical EOR at an early stage of development in its Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) fields," the statement said.

The reservoir quality, oil properties and ambient temperature make MBA fields ideal for the application of chemical flooding EOR methods such as polymer or alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) flooding.
The chemical EOR programme has a potential to enhance recoveries from the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields by around 300 million barrels, it said.
Sudhir Mathur, CFO, Cairn India said: "Injecting the polymer at our world class polymer flood EOR project, ahead of schedule is a testament to our execution skills and team work. This will enable us to further unlock the potential of the prolific Rajasthan block and help contribute significantly towards the nation's energy security.