11-12-09 For the first time, a ship chartered by an Indian company is hunting for oil in Sri Lankan waters, with Cairn Lanka -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India -- starting seismic survey in the Mannar basin at an investment of $ 110 mm.
In a related development, Cairn India will also merge oil and gas businesses of some of its subsidiaries with itself with a view to improving administrative efficiencies. The company's four subsidiaries -- Cairn Energy India, Cairn Energy India West, Cairn Energy Cambay and Cairn Energy Gujarat -- will merge their Indian oil and gas businesses with Cairn India.

In Sri Lanka, Cairn will survey Block SL 2007-01-001. The acreage was awarded to Cairn India in an auction held in 2008. The block lies offshore northwest Sri Lanka, with water depths ranging from 400 to 1,900 metres.
Cairn India said it expects to complete data acquisition by first quarter of 2010 and complete processing the data mid-2010. Drilling, based on the interpreted data and subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to commence in the first half of 2011.

Cairn has chartered the survey vessel, Veritas, from Norwegian firm CGG. Cairn Lanka director Indrajit Banerjee described the survey as the "first 3D seismic acquisition programme'' in Sri Lanka.
"While there are no guarantees of success when exploring a frontier area such as the Mannar basin, the block is under-explored and we are encouraged by the studies we have conducted to date,'' he said.