Cairn crosses 200m barrel milestone at Ravva - by ASH55566
Cairn India, the operator of the Ravva oil and gas field offshore Andhra Pradesh, reported the production of 200 million barrels of oil from the field. The operating costs are amongst the lowest for a field of its size anywhere in the world (top 25).
The Ravva field, producing at around 50,000 barrels per day, accounts for nearly 7% of India's domestic crude oil production.
The field was discovered in 1987 by ONGC, and the Ravva JV handed over the operation through a production sharing contract signed in 1994. At the time of the signing, the field was producing 3,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and had an initial reserve estimate of 101 million barrels of recoverable oil.
Since the mid Nineties, on behalf of the JV, Cairn India as the operator has further developed the field and increased the production rate. By 1997 the production rate was 35,000bpd and by 1999 it had reached the current plateau production rate of 50,000bpd.
Three development drilling campaigns have been carried out over the past decade to drill 32 developments wells. The most recent campaign lasting some 18 months was completed earlier this year. Ravva was the first operation that Cairn was involved in India after the liberalisation of the oil and sector in the 1990s.