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While Cairn India is seeking a licence extension for its Rajasthan petroleum block till 2020, it has plans for the field till 2030-40 and beyond.
To enhance oil recovery rates (EOR), it is set to embark on a first polymer injection at the Mangala block by the fourth quarter of this financial year. The unprecedented scale of the Mangala EOR project will require polymers worth $300 million every three years. Cairn's contractual term for exploration and production from the Rajasthan Block RJ-ON-90/2 expires in 2020.
"Incremental recovery is expected to be 15 per cent from the MBA (Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya) fields or 300 million barrels. Incremental oil production is estimated at 83 million barrels by 2030," said Samarendra Roychaudhury, consultant head, central operations team, Cairn India. He was speaking at an energy conference here last week.
The actual investment would, however, depend on the extension it would get from the government. Petroleum secretary Saurabh Chandra said last week a decision on it could take more than a month.
Polymer flooding is mixing long chain polymer molecules with injected water to increase water viscosity. This improves the oil mobility ratio. EOR production potential is equivalent to around 40 per cent of all the oil that has been produced worldwide.
At present, water flooding technology at Mangala has enabled the field to produce 150,000 barrels a day at its peak and the estimated recovery by 2040 is 476 million barrels. But even this estimated recovery is only 37 per cent of the stock tank oil initially in place. The company claims the actual potential of Mangala is much higher.
In its latest annual report, Cairn India said the company expects to ultimately recover half of the resource base with water flooding and EOR. Cairn identified chemical EOR as the future for Mangala after intensive studies of the reservoir, crude oil and other factors by academic and industrial experts. Polymer EOR is the first step in the Chemical EOR process and is expected to produce an incremental 74 million barrels till 2040, a six per cent growth over the existing ultimate recovery projection.
Upon completion, the Mangala EOR project will hold the record for the largest ever in a single field. Cairn India's Rajasthan block recently reached production of 216 million barrels of oil equivalent... The company is now actively pursuing the gas potential. It has requested the petroleum ministry to extend the production-sharing contract in the first instance till 2030, since the block had commercial production potential till 2040. To get an extension till 2030, the company has to prove gas potential in the block.
