Cairn Oil & Gas' India reserves surpass 1.1bn boe

India's Cairn Oil & Gas, a unit of the Vedanta Group, announced on May 25 that its reserves and resources portfolio has surpassed 1.1bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

The company's estimated total gross 2P (proved plus probable) reserves and 2C (contingent) resources amount to 1,156mn boe, with oil accounting for 85% of this total. Cairn's assets have a gross hydrocarbons in place of approximately 6.7bn boe, out of which 1.18bn boe has been produced so far.

Cairn plans to develop up to 20 potential new projects to bring a significant portion of the 846mn boe of gross 2C resources into production. During the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2023, Cairn's reserve and resource additions exceeded production, primarily due to the acquisition of eight discovered small field (DSF) licenses. This resulted in a resource replacement ratio of 108%, indicating that the company has added more reserves and resources than it has produced.

Nick Walker, the CEO of Cairn Oil & Gas, said his company is committed to increasing India's domestic oil and gas production. Cairn aims to contribute 50% of the country's crude oil production.

Cairn currently holds 62 licenses in India, which are estimated to contain over 3bn boe of gross unrisked prospective resources. In the next two years, the company plans to drill up to 20 exploration wells to target approximately 500 million boe of gross unrisked prospective resources.