Cairn India joins US' Baker Hughes, Halliburton: Update

Add details on agreement with Baker Hughes in paragraphs 1 and 3

Indian private-sector firm Vedanta's Cairn Oil and Gas has entered into partnerships with US-based oil field services firms Baker Hughes and Halliburton to increase recoverable reserves from Cairn's oil production assets.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the Adipec oil and gas conference in Abu Dhabi and come about a month and a half after parent company Vedanta Resources' executive chairman Anil Agarwal said that Cairn would contribute 50pc of the country's total crude production within 2-3 years to reduce oil prices.

Cairn targets increasing its recoverable reserves to 250mn bl of oil equivalent (boe) from 45mn boe currently at the Bhagyam oil field in Rajasthan's Barmer site under its deal with Baker Hughes. It aims to increase its recoverable reserves from its offshore assets to 300mn boe from 30mn boe currently and commence shale exploration in the Lower Barmer Hill formation under the agreement with Halliburton.

"To increase domestic production, India needs to encourage exploration of new fields, increase investment and technology for ageing fields, and also incentivise unconventional options like shale and gas," Cairn Oil and Gas chief executive Prachur Sah said earlier. The firm is moving towards its target of increasing production capacities to 500,000 boe/d, but other details such as the timeline and its current capacity are unclear.

The offshore assets targeted to increase recoverable reserves under the agreement with Halliburton include Ravva, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, Cambay, on the western coast, and several newly-acquired Open Acreage Licensing Policy blocks.

India is yet to commercially produce shale oil. The current shale potential at Barmer basin stands at 3bn bl and Cairn wants to establish a reserve of 300mn boe with the Halliburton partnership, the company said.

By Sathya Narayanan