Cairns Sells First Crude oil from Rajasthan, A new Era Begins

Cairns Sells First Crude oil from Rajasthan, A new Era Begins. Cairn India, the company that gave the nation its largest oil discovery in more than two decades, has sold the first crude from its prolific Rajasthan fields to the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL). Cairn had on August 29 started production from its Barmer district fields in the Thar desert near the Pakistan border. Oil from the giant Mangala field in the block is transported by trucks and tankers to Kandla on the Gujarat coast for onward shipment to MRPL, which is nominated by the government as one of the buyers of Cairn's crude. A MRPL official said the price would be the average price of Nigerian Bonny Light crude oil for October minus a discount for the quality of the Rajasthan crude. The discount too would be calculated based on the product prices in the month.
MRPL and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) have been allocated 0.20 million tons each of Rajasthan crude in the period up to March 31, 2010, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) would offtake 0.30 million tons. Basu said MRPL, a unit of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), will begin processing the Rajasthan crude at the 9.69 million-tons-a-year refinery this week itself. Bhagyam, Aishwariya and also other small fields will start production in 2010 and peak output of 1,75,000 bpd is forecast in 2010. Cairn India holds a 70 per cent stake in the RJ-ON-90/1 block, while ONGC holds the balance.