Cairn Lanka drills second oil well in Sri Lanka

Cairn Lanka, exploring oil in the Mannar basin off northwestern coast has started drilling a second site. The company has started work on a second well CLPL-Barracuda-1G/1 in the Block SL 2007-01-001.

Cairn Lanka, which began oil drilling operations in the Mannar basin in August, found gas deposits in its first well CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z.

According to the company, it has struck a gas deposit of a gross 25m hydrocarbon column with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential in a sandstone between the depths of 3,043.8 to 3,068.7 meters.

Cairn hopes to drill three more wells under its exploration program, which is expected to be completed in early 2012.

Cairn has said earlier if Sri Lanka’s drilling program is successful then commercial oil production can be expected by 2014 with a billion barrels.

The Block SL 2007-01-001 was awarded to Cairn in the 2008 Sri Lanka bid round.

Mannar basin has eight oil and gas exploration blocks and two of them have been granted to China and India. Russia’s largest oil company, Gazprom and Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, PetroVietnam have expressed interest in oil exploration in the Mannar Basin, the Policy Research & Information Unit of the Presidential Secretariat reports.