By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan
After discovering the second gas well, Cairn Lanka (Private) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India Limited is going ahead with the drilling of the third well in the Mannar Basin, company sources said.
According to sources, the fifth generation drillship, Chikyu, engaged for this drilling campaign is being mobilized to reach the location of the third well in order to begin further exploratory drilling.
After discovering natural gas deposits in one of the eight blocks in the Mannar Basin in the month of October, Cairn Lanka (Private) Limited announced the discovery of gas in the second well last week.
Geological models validated
The second well, christened Barracuda -1G/1 well, was drilled at a location about 38 kilometres from the first well. This is the second well in a three well frontier basin programme. Cairn Lanka Private Limited is the operator and has a 100 per cent participating interest in the block.
According to industry experts, the Barracuda discovery helps in extending the working petroleum system that was earlier established by the discovery in the first well in the Mannar basin. The two discoveries in the basin validate the geological models that were developed by Cairn Lanka prior to drilling.
The second successive discovery is located approximately 68 km from the Sri Lankan coastline.
The company has informed that an update on the well results will be provided after the end of the programme, which is expected to be complete by early next year.
The CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z well is the first exploration well to be drilled in Sri Lanka in 30 years and also the first with a hydrocarbon discovery. Cairn Lanka has one of eight blocks in the Mannar Basin and began drilling in August.
The two discoveries in Mannar have opened up a new basin but analysts feel some more time will be required to appraise the commercial viability which will require more drilling – this will ideally require both exploration as well as appraisal drilling – and could take anywhere between 18 month to two years. The drilling in the Mannar Basin would be completed in three stages. The first stage involves drilling of the three wells, while the other two stages will take two years and three years, respectively.
Billions of barrels
Prior to the drilling Cairn Lanka undertook detailed drilling-related activities such as seismic survey, pore pressure prediction, and Metocean & Currents survey.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 4741 metres (m) in a water depth of 1509m and encountered 24m of hydrocarbon bearing sandstone in three zones between the depths of 4067m and 4206m. The reservoirs are predominantly gas bearing with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential.
Cairn will evaluate the well results and work with appropriate authorities to determine the commercial potential of this discovery.
Cairn Lanka’s parent company Cairn India accounts for three of the seven landmark discoveries made in India since 2000. It contributes to more than 20 per cent of India’s domestic production.
The Mannar Basin has eight blocks. Sri Lanka granted two to India and one to China in 2007. Officials from Russia’s largest oil company, Gazprom, recently toured the area to discuss exploration in the Mannar Basin.
The government’s seismic data indicates the area could have up to a billion barrels of oil. At present though, Sri Lanka is totally dependent on oil imports, to the tune of US$3 billion in 2009.
A gross 25 metre hydrocarbon column in a sandstone sequence, between measured depths of 3,043.8-3,068.7 metres has been interpreted from wire line log and Modular Dynamic Tester (MDT) data to be predominantly gas bearing with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential.
Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon in the National Capital Region, with operational offices in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Sri Lanka.
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