India’s largest private crude producer Vedanta plans to invest billions of dollars in the oil and gas sector and its commodity-related businesses, according to a report by S&P Global Commodity Insights, citing the company president Anil Agarwal.
Agarwal said the changing energy landscape will increase demand for oil and gas as well as metal resources in the foreseeable future, according to the report.
Vedanta owns Cairn Oil & Gas, which is India’s largest private sector crude oil producer, owning assets in India’s Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat regions, according to the company’s website. The Mangala field in Rajasthan, discovered in January 2004, was India’s largest onshore oil discovery in two decades. The Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields, the three main discoveries in the Rajasthan block, have cumulative reserves of approximately 7.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (Bboe). Cairn has 62 licenses in India, which are estimated to contain more than 3.0 Bboe of unrisked gross potential resources.
In an earlier press release, Cairn said its total estimated 2P plus 2C gross resources have reached 1,156 Bboe, of which oil accounts for 85 percent. 2P reserves are the total of proven and probable reserves, while 2C is the best estimate of contingent resources. The company plans up to 20 potential new development projects to bring a substantial proportion of the 846 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2C crude resources into production. The company plans to drill up to 20 exploration wells in the next two years, targeting approximately 500 million barrels of oil equivalent of unrisked gross potential resources.
“Cairn has a world-class resource base of more than 1.1 gross Bboe, and we continued to sustain the business last year, adding more resources than we produced,” said Cairn CEO Nick Walker. “We have significant undeveloped resources and are moving at pace to apply the latest technology to define a portfolio of up to 20 new projects. We also have a materials exploration position in India and are starting a drilling program of exciting exploration with the aim of continuing to grow our resources Cairn is committed to raising the level of India’s domestic oil and gas production, with a vision to contribute 50 percent of crude oil production of the country”.
Cairn’s current total production capacity is 147,000 boe per day, with the Rajasthan block contributing 120,000 boe per day, or nearly 82 percent of the total. Cumulatively, the block has produced more than 700 million boe in the past decade, according to the press release.
In a separate press release, Cairn said it signed three MoUs with the state governments of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh for biodiversity conservation through massive planting of 750,000 trees. The carbon captured through the massive planting is equivalent to the emissions needed to provide electricity to 4,500 Indian homes, the company said.
The three deals represent 38 percent of the two million trees Cairn has committed to planting by 2030 and will help the company achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The initiative is in line with India’s targets for carbon sink development.
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