Cairn Vedanta Discover oil in Rajasthan

Tags: Economics/Business

Cairn oil and Gas company announced

 on 21 February 2022 that it has discovered fresh crude oil in the Barmer oil block of Rajasthan.

 The oil well has been named “Durga”.

• The block is one of the 41 areas that the company had won in the first round of the open acreage licensing policy (OALP) bid round in October 2018.

• Cairns Oil and Gas is a subsidiary of Vedanta limited.

• Cairn Oil & Gas is the largest private sector producer of crude oil in India, currently producing oil from oil fields  in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. 

• Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields, the three major discoveries in the Rajasthan block, cumulatively have hydrocarbon reserves of approximately 2.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Fact files Oil 

• Edwin L. Drake drilled the world's first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1866,

• The first oil well to be dug in India was  at Digboi field in Assam in September 1889-1890 by Assam Railways and Trading Company Limited registered in London.

• In 1901, Asia's first oil refinery was set up at Digboi, Assam. It is still functional and the world's oldest operating refinery.

• The first oil discovery in independent India was made in 1953 in Naharkatia and then in Moran in 1956 both in Upper Assam. 

•  Within a year of being formed, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) discovered oil at Cambay (Gujarat), the  giant Ankleshwar field in the state of Gujarat in 1960, Kalol (Gujarat) in 1961, Lakwa (Assam)in 1964, Geleki(Assam) in 1968.

•  However, the biggest discovery of oil in India was made by ONGC in Mumbai  High in 1974.  It is an offshore oilfield 176 km off the west coast of Mumbai, in the Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about 75 m of water. 

Source : Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India)