Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to inaugurate later this month Cairn India's Rajasthan oil fields, sources said today.
The company has already reached pricing agreements with principal buyers, Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.
The production from Cairn India's fields is expected to bring down the country's oil import bill by $6.8 billion or seven per cent, according to Goldman Sachs.
Cairn India CEO Rahul Dhir had last month said that negotiations on price for the initial offtake of Rajasthan crude have been concluded with the government of India nominees — Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.
"We have concluded pricing negotiations with MRPL and IOC for the initial quantities of crude from Rajasthan, which currently represents a 10 to 15 per cent discount to Brent," he said.
The Government has approved the revised Mangala field development plan, including laying pipelines and a higher processing capacity of 2,05,000 barrels per day.
Cairn has drilled 28 wells in the Mangala oilfield of Rajasthan. Of those, 16 have been completed and are ready for production.
The first processing train of 30,000 barrels per day capacity is ready and the second unit will be ready by the fourth quarter of 2009.
The pipeline transporting the crude from deserts of Rajasthan to the Gujarat coast will also be completed by the end of 2009.
Train three (50,000 bpd), which will follow Train two, is progressing on target to attain Mangala plateau production of 125,000 bpd by the first half of 2010.
