Indian company drills second oil well in Sri Lanka
October 22nd, 2011 - 8:36 pm ICT by IANSColombo, Oct 22 (IANS) An Indian company, engaged in exploring oil in the seas of northern Sri Lanka, has begun drilling a second well, the Sri Lankan government said Saturday.
Cairn Lanka, a subsidiary of Cairn India which had recently announced the discovery of oil in the Mannar basin, has begun drilling a second well in search of oil in the island nation, Xinhua reported.
According to the Sri Lankan information department, Cairn, in the first well, found a 25-metre hydrocarbon deposit at a depth of 3,000 metres. The Indian company has now started work on a second well after its first successful attempt, and also hopes to drill three wells under its exploration programme, which is expected to be completed early in 2012.
Cairn India, earlier this month, announced that it had struck natural gas reserves in the very first well it drilled in the offshore Mannar basin of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa said that if Sri Lanka succeeded in finding oil in the Mannar, which is believed to hold around one billion barrels of oil, the country would no longer have to depend on importing oil from other countries, a prospect that would save billions of dollars to the country.
Earlier this year, Cairn stated that if Sri Lanka’s drilling programme is successful, commercial oil production could be expected by 2014 with a billion barrels.
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- Sri Lanka to call for oil exploration bids - Oct 06, 2011
- Petrobras finds oil signs during deepwater exploration - Oct 28, 2010
- Cairn India strikes oil in Krishna Godavari basin - Aug 23, 2010
- Vedanta enters oil prospecting with $8.5-$9.6 bn Cairn deal (Roundup) - Aug 16, 2010
- CAG critical of ONGC exploration performance - Aug 28, 2012
- US to lease out Gulf of Mexico chunk for oil drilling - Jan 27, 2012
- Ramesh to review India-aided projects in Sri Lanka - Jul 12, 2012
- Indian delegation holds talks in Sri Lanka - Apr 17, 2012
- Vedanta to pick up majority stake in Cairn India (Lead) - Aug 16, 2010
- Zardari sets $2 bn trade target with Sri Lanka - Feb 11, 2012
- Sri Lanka expects Cairn India to extract oil by 2010 (Lead) - Jul 07, 2008
Tags: basil rajapaksa, billions of dollars, cairn india, commercial oil, development minister, discovery, economic development, hydrocarbon, information department, island nation, lanka sri, mannar, natural gas reserves, northern sri lanka, oil production, one billion, sri lanka colombo, sri lankan government, three wells, xinhua