India Awards Assam-Arakam Block to Consortium

India’s Directorate General of Hydrocarbons of India has awarded the AA-ONN-2010/2 exploration block in the Assam-Arakan basin of northeast India to a consortium consisting of Oil India Ltd. (operator, 40 per cent); Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (30 per cent); Gas Authority of India Ltd. (20 per cent); and Canadian based East West Petroleum Corporation (10 per cent).

The award covers approximately 400 square kilometres within the Karbi Aglong district of the Assam-Arakan basin, a proven petroliferous region which covers more than 116,000 square km in northeastern India.

Industry has been active in the region, with over 60,000 km of 2-D and more than 7600 square km of 3-D seismic data acquired, over 1,000 wells drilled and 118 oil and gas fields found to date.

Current production for the area is estimated at 95,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with original oil in place estimated at 36 billion barrels.

East West cited its management’s expertise in unconventional plays such as shale resource plays.

The award with a primary term of 5 years, was announced on March 28 in New Delhi on a provisional basis, subject to final administrative review.

Source: East West Petroleum Corporation