Cairn India, India’s biggest private oil producer, has sought government permission for increasing its capacity from 160,000 barrels to 350,000 barrels.
The London-controlled firm, which approached the environment ministry for the nod, has been told to come back with the comments of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, under the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
It has also been told to submit a status of the performance of the earlier conditions attached to its environmental clearance for the first stage of the project.
According to its application, Cairn wants to increase the capacity of its Mangala Processing Terminal (MPT) from 160,000 barrels to 350,000 barrels so as to process the extra crude produced by nearby fields.
Cairn intends to bring into production 21 new fields in Rajasthan. The company is producing oil from one field in Rajasthan at present — Mangala.
When ready, the enlarged Rajasthan operation will supply around 40% or more of India’s total production.
Existing water requirement from saline ground water is 32,500 m3/day. CGWA has permitted ground water drawl of 25,000 m3/day and additional abstraction of 7,500 m3/day is already under consideration. Additional water requirement for the proposed expansion will be 50,000 m3/day, the company said in its application.
The expansion would include drilling an additional 1200 wells, including those at 85 new well pads (sites.) The overall project cost is around Rs 25,000 crore.