Cairn to work with Halliburton for boosting offshore recoverable reserves

Aims 10-fold reserve augmentation from Cairn's offshore assets

Cairn Oil and Gas, a unit of Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta, announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a partnership with Halliburton. A statement from Cairn Oil and Gas said that under the alliance, Cairn will work with Halliburton to pursue the target of increasing its recoverable reserves from offshore assets to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). This is a 10-fold increase from the present cumulative of 30 mmboe.

The offshore assets include Ravva, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, Cambay, on the western coast, and several newly acquired Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) blocks.

“This partnership for offshore assets will evolve through three distinct stages of conceptual design, conceptual detailing, and execution. This will include geological and seismic studies, well-designing and engineering, and drilling to determine recoverable reserves,” the statement said.

“This announcement follows Cairn’s commitment of doubling its capacity, contributing 50 per cent to India’s domestic crude production,” it added.

Commenting on the development, Prachur Sah, CEO at Cairn Oil and Gas, said, “To increase domestic production, India needs to encourage exploration of new fields, increase investment and technology for ageing fields, and also incentivise unconventional options like shale and gas.”

Sid Whyte, senior vice president of Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific region for Halliburton said, “We believe our collaboration with Cairn and engineered solutions will maximize their asset value and increase overall production growth for the country.”