For the first time, a ship chartered by an Indian company is hunting for oil in Sri Lankan waters, with Cairn Lanka Pvt Ltd — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India — starting seismic survey in the Mannar basin at an investment of $110 million.
In a related development, Cairn India will also merge oil and gas businesses of some of its subsidiaries with itself with a view to improving administrative efficiencies. The company’s four subsidiaries — Cairn Energy India, Cairn Energy India West BV, Cairn Energy Cambay BV and Cairn Energy Gujarat BV — will merge their Indian oil and gas businesses with Cairn India.
In Sri Lanka, Cairn will survey Block SL 2007-01-001. The acreage was awarded to Cairn India in an auction held in 2008. The block lies offshore northwest Sri Lanka, with water depths ranging from 400 to 1,900 metres. A Cairn India statement said it expects to complete data acquisition by first quarter of 2010 and complete processing the data mid-2010. Drilling, based on the interpreted data and subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to commence in the first half of 2011.
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