Cairn partners Halliburton to increase recoverable oil reserve, explore shale

Vedanta’s Cairn Oil and Gas have entered into an agreement with global energy sector contractor Halliburton Offshore Services to increase the recoverable hydrocarbon reserve from its offshore assets, including the Ravva field off the Andhra Pradesh coast, Cambay block on the western coast, and several newly acquired blocks through bidding under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime. The two companies have also agreed to begin shale exploration in the Lower Barmer Hills area of western Rajasthan. The developments come at a time when oil and gas investments are being done with a very cautious approach and explorations have been stopped in a lot of countries.

Cairn will work with Halliburton to pursue its target of increasing the recoverable reserve from its offshore assets to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) from the current level of 30 mboe. The announcement follows Cairn’s commitment to doubling its capacity and contributing 50% to the country’s domestic crude production. Fields run under production sharing contracts by private developers such as Cairn contribute about 25% of the country’s domestic output while 65% is produced by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and the remaining by state-run Oil India. The country imports about 85% of its crude oil requirement and the government are eyeing ways to increase domestic output.