Mangala Area

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Mangala Area (Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya Fields)
Country: India
Licence Block(s): RJ-ON-90-1
Offshore/Onshore: Onshore
Operator(s): Cairn India
Partners: Cairn India, ONGC
Field History
Discovery: 1999
Start of Production: Nov 2005
Expected Abandoment: 2041
Production
Current Production Oil: 0
Current Production Gas: 0
Estimated STOIIP: 3600(mmbll)
Estimated STOIIP: Unknown (bcf)
Producing Formations: Tertiary, Palaeocene, Fatehgarh

The Mangala Area, located in Block RJ-ON-90-1 (the Rajasthan Block) is a major oil field located in the Indian State of Rajasthan. The Mangala area actually consists of over 16 separate oil and gas fields of which the majority of the reserves are located in the three fields of Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya. The Mangala Area sits in Barmer Basin and is thought to contain oil in place volumes of 3.6 billion barrels (570,000,000 m³) of which 500 million barrels (79,000,000 m³) are thought to be recoverable. Cairn India is the current operator of the field, a subsidiary of Cairn Energy

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[edit] Field participation history

Royal Dutch Shell won the licensing round for Block RJ-ON-90-1 in 1992 from the Indian Government, entering into a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with them. 27% of this contract was then sold to Cairn Energy in 1998 in return for covering some historical costs and drilling the next exploration well. Cairn's stake increased to 50% in 1999 by offering in exchange to fund the second exploration well. The remaining 50% was bought out from Shell in 2002 for approximately $7 million dollars. In 2005 the national Indian oil company ONGC exercised their right as part of the terms of the PSC to acquire a 30% stake in the two larger fields discovered to date. The company remains this option on all further discoveries in the block. 2006 witnessed a restructuring of Cairn Energy into three separate companies, Cairn Energy, Cairn India and Capricorn Energy. Block RJ-ON-90-1 was included in the assets of Cairn India which was successfully floated on the Indian stock market in the same year raising almost $ 2 billion dollars.

[edit] Reservoir properties

Despite containing a massive 3.6 billion barrels (570,000,000 m³) of in-situ oil the recovery factor for the field is roughly around 15% giving it reserves of approximately 500 million barrels (79,000,000 m³). This level of recovery is a result of the properties of the oil rather than to do with the geological settings of the reservoir which can often hamper recovery factors. The oil has an API of between 25 and 30 which makes it slightly heavier than Brent Crude at 38 API however more importantly the oil is very waxy. This waxiness causes it to be a solid at room temperature. Brent crude typically has a pour point at 3 C while Mangala oil has a pour point of 42C.

To assist with increasing the recovery factor two types of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) are currently being evaluated which could increase the recovery by up to 25%. The less riskier and costly of them would be to undertake a Polymer flood instead of a traditional water flood. This is a robust strategy which is not very dependent on the oil price, well location or extensive testing. The other option is to undertake Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer flooding (ASP). ASP flooding would be riskier in terms of costs, well spacing, development time (5yrs) and would be more sensitive to the oil price. However the rewards for it are significantly higher potentially increasing the incremental reserves by 25% when compared to polymer or water flooding.

[edit] Exploration and development

To date Cairn (and previously Shell) have drilled 144 wells during the exploration stage of which 22 were discoveries, the most significant being the Mangala discovery well which confirmed the field's large reserves. The well intersected two separate reservoirs with a total oil column of 320 meters.

Cairn India expects to drill in excess of 100 wells developing the fields in the Mangala Area. First production was scheduled to begin in 2007 however this has thought to have slipped to 2009 due to the tight oil market for equipment and services.

Peak production is expected to plateau at 150,000 barrels per day (24,000 m³/d).

[edit] References