L&T to build Cairn India’s drilling infrastructure in Rajasthan

The engineering and construction division of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has been awarded two major contracts for the construction of civil works and the consolidated construction works for Cairn India's 'northern area development project' near Barmer in Rajasthan the UK energy firm's Indian affiliate and ONGC, its joint venture partners, prepare for the first oil production in 2009.

The scope of work covers the development of infrastructure facilities, the construction of 18 well pad structures, detailed engineering and construction of all civil and electromechanical works at the Mangala and Raageshwari Fields, offsite infrastructure facilities, supply, installation and commissioning of 33 KVA high voltage power line system and the telecom network.

L&T is required to complete the project within 18 months.

The Mangala processing facility will cover some 400 acres in the Thar desert in Rajasthan. The construction team will have to move approximately six million cubic metres of rock and soil to prepare the site for development.The main access road to the Mangala site has already been constructed.

Cairn Energy India Pvt Ltd has drilled more than 140 wells and has made more than 20 discoveries to date in Rajasthan. The government of India has given its approval for the field development plans for the Mangala, Aishwarya, Saraswati and Raageshwari Fields. The initial focus will be to bring Mangala onstream at the earliest opportunity which is currently scheduled for 2009 with the other fields following.

Cairn has a resource base of 3.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place. The implementation of the field developmental activities will lead to a step change in oil production levels for the Company when its targeted production level of 150,000 bopd is reached. This project will make a significant contribution to reducing India's current oil supply / demand imbalance.

Announcing the order, K Venkataramanan, president (engineering and construction projects) and member of the board, said, "L&T is proud to be associated with Cairn in being able to leverage our own strengths to boost India's needs of fuel resources. Our technology and dedicated team will be able to deliver the job, on time".