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Cairn bets on shale, sees 10% drop in India’s oil imports at peak output
Vedanta-owned Cairn Oil and Gas is betting on its shale exploration programme in its prolific Rajasthan asset, estimating that shale oil and gas production may reduce India’s oil and gas import by 10% when production kicks in.
We will start shale exploration potentially in the next one or two months. With shale potential at 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) we want to establish a reserve of 300 million boe and production target of 500,000 boepd. This will ultimately bring down oil imports by 10%,” Prachur Sah, Deputy CEO, Cairn Oil and Gas told ET.
Shale is a type of natural gas trapped in fine-grained sedimentary rocks called shales. Cairn’s onshore Rajasthan oilfields – Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) – are its flagship and most prolific assets. They jointly produce up to 20% of India’s entire crude output.
Cairn aims to produce 50% of the country’s oil and gas requirements but declining hydrocarbons production from the MBA fields has been a challenge. Cairn is planning to adopt enhanced oil recovery programmes to ramp up output. Last November, it tied up with oil field services majors Halliburton and Baker Hughes and more such tie-ups are in the offing.
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