-
India’s Cairn Drilled Two Oil Wells could collectively generate 2.6 GW Power for 40 years for Sri Lanka
Now Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal controlled Vedanta group owned Cairn India drilled two oil wells that had been identified to holding over several billions of cubic feet of Natural Gas could collectively generate over 2.6 GW (Giga Watt) Power for 40 years for Sri Lanka, reveals the latest annual review of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources Development that was recently released to the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Accordingly the report highlights that the development initiatives taken by the government during the recent past years from 2008 have laid the foundation for oil and gas exploration sector in Sri Lanka. “Sri Lanka has already discovered her own gas depositories in Mannar basin. It has been revealed that the smaller “ Dorado” reservoir has 300 BCF (Billion Cubic Feet) of Natural Gas (NG) that can fire 630 MW (Mega Watt) power plant for about 10 years” the report notes.
“The more complex larger “Barracuda” discovery exceeds 1.8 TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet) of NG that can fire 2,000 MW power plant for 30 years” the review notes adding that at present, the actions are being taken to commercialize already discovered oil and gas deposits through International Competitive Bidding. The report also highlights that in addition, oil and gas exploration activities are being carried out through foreign investors on multi-client basis. Natural Gas is being used worldwide at present as a clean source of energy.
“It has become an important fuel for Sri Lanka as well both in terms of energy and diversity of use” the report said adding that therefore, there is potential for Natural Gas (NG) to be used in power, industrial, transportation, household and commerce sectors in Sri Lanka as a fuel or a feedstock. The sectorial NG demand is expected to be met by exploitation of indigenous NG resources or imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which depend on the availability, market conditions and policy.
“Currently, the government is keen on using Natural Gas initially for power generation of the country and the interests of other parties such as industrialists, transporters on usage of Natural Gas for their purposes are also being discussed” the report added. The report said that in the above context, the Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat (PRDS) under the guidance of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources Development in collaboration with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has formulated a Draft National Policy on Natural Gas which is timely.
“Currently, the policy is being reviewed by the Ministry, PRDS, CPC and CPSTL and once it is finished, stakeholder consultation workshops will be organized for further development of the said draft policy” the report noted. Cairn India’s 100% owned subsidiary – Cairn Lanka that had a 100% participating interest in the Block M2 of Mannar Basin in Sri Lanka, and the block contains two natural gas and condensate discoveries (Dorado and Barracuda) both of which were discovered by exploration activities carried out by Cairn Lanka in 2011. Earlier reports highlight that the volumetric analysis of these two discoveries has indicated a combined potential reservoir capacity in excess of 2 TCF (Trillion Cubic feet) of natural gas and 10 million BBL (barrels) of condensate. PRDS in their earlier statements had said that the economic analysis of these two discoveries indicates a very competitive gas price and about 11 oil and gas companies including few major exploration companies have already expressed their interest for this block and the Government expects to license this block by early 2018.
According to reports during 2008 – 2015 a sum of US $ 26 million has been spent on petroleum exploration activities for local capacity building and procurement of local goods and services by the Operator of block M2 in Mannar (ex-Cairn SL 2007-01-001). Nearly 17 local suppliers transacted US $ 18 million services during this period demonstrating a slow emergence of a new industry. Four local universities had been assisted and guided to establish upstream petroleum related course modules. The M2 block exploration program itself is a US$ 240 million worth of a petroleum data asset, conclusive of two gas discoveries, as per an earlier report of PRDS. Thus far PRDS has made Rs. 700 million data sales and the owner of valuable petroleum data that may lead to massive production sharing contracts in the immediate future. Nolan Cromwell Authentic Jersey
Share This
