Cairn India discovers natural gas in two wells in Sri Lanka's offshore Mannar basin

16 Mar 2012 Evaluate

Cairn India has discovered natural gas in two wells in Sri Lanka's offshore Mannar basin, demonstrating the presence of hydrocarbons, although their commercial viability has yet to be determined. The company is expected to start another phase of exploration in Mannar basin soon.

However, Sri Lankan government now plans to auction these oil exploration blocks in the western Mannar basin and the northern Cauvery basin by mid-year, after finishing talks with India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on exploration rights.

Sri Lanka produces no oil and is dependent on imports, which cost it $4.6 billion in 2011. Since the end of a 25-year war with Tamil separatists three years ago, the government has tried to reinvigorate oil and gas exploration.

Cairn India is one of the biggest private sector exploration and production companies in India. It has employee strength of 650 people. The company has two processing plants, 11 platforms, 200 km of sub-sea pipelines and operations spreading across the Indian sub-continent.

Peers
Company Name CMP
ONGC 284.60
Oil India 475.35
Jindal Drilling&Inds 461.05
Deep Industries 430.35
Asian Energy Service 238.70
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