Cairn India News

Cairn India Ltd has invited initial bids for exports of its oil from the desert state of Rajasthan, according to a copy of the tender notice seen by Reuters, despite a government ban on overseas sales of locally-produced crude. A government official said there had been no change in the ban and that Cairn India might simply be trying to establish a price for its oil via the tender process ahead of negotiations to sell it to local buyers. Cairn India, backed by billionaire Anil Agarwal, did not respond to telephone calls and an email seeking comment about the export notice. India is the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer and imports about 80 percent of its oil needs, leading it to place restrictions on the export of locally-produced oil.

Indian police have won court approval to hold five company officials for 72 hours as they investigate an alleged scam to steal documents from the oil ministry to sell to consultants and private companies. The officials from Reliance Industries, Essar , Cairn India, Jubilant Energy and Reliance Power were arrested on Friday along with seven other people, Ravindra Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Delhi Police, told Reuters on Saturday. One of the arrested people is former journalist Santanu Saikia, who now runs websites about the oil, power and fertiliser sectors. Saikia said he was doing an undercover investigation into what he called a 100 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) scam.

Continental Resources Inc, the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, said on Thursday that Rick Bott, its president and chief operating officer, had resigned. Bott, 54, was widely considered the likely successor to Continental Chief Executive Officer Harold Hamm, 68. His departure leaves a talent gap at the top of the company, which is in the midst of an ambitious attempt to double its 2012 production levels by 2017. Continental said Bott's duties will be divided between remaining executives. It was not immediately clear why Bott resigned or if he had secured a new job. Before joining Continental in 2012, Bott had worked at Cairn India Ltd and in Devon Energy Corp's international division. Calls to Bott were not immediately returned.

Cairn India Ltd. announces that Mr. P Elango, Interim CEO & Whole time Director has decided to step down for personal reasons. The Board has accepted his resignation. Mr. Sudhir Mathur, CFO, has taken over the additional responsibility of leading the organization in the interim. Tom Albanese, CEO Vedanta Resources plc and Mike Yeager, Chairman, Operations Review Board, Cairn India, will continue to work closely with the leadership team in managing the business under the guidance of the Board. The Board expresses its appreciation for Mr. Elango’s significant contribution during his nearly 18 years’ association with the company. Under Elango’s leadership, Cairn delivered 200,000 boepd from the Rajasthan block and achieved record levels of financial revenue & profitability.

Singapore-based offshore specialist Nordic Maritime has been awarded a $23.5 million contract to provide 3D marine seismic data acquisition and processing services off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, to Cairn India Limited, starting later this month. The contract will see Nordic Maritime collaborate with SCF Geo of Russia and will feature that group’s seismic survey vessel Vyacheslav Tikhonov. The Vyacheslav Tikhonov will survey approximately 1,000 sq km of ocean bed. The…

Unique Hydrographic Systems has been contracted by Cairn India for an Oil Spill Recovery project. The first of its kind project for Unique Hydrographic Systems will run over a period of three years until April 2016. The crux of this Tier 1 project includes the supply of oil spill recovery equipment from Lamor along with vehicles and a trained team of responders and supervisors for approximately 700 kilometers of hot crude oil pipeline from Barmer to Jamnagar. The pipeline unit is maintained at 65 degrees and serves a string of refineries at Randhanpur…

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) plans to invest over $5b to produce 25 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its eastern offshore Krishna Godavari fields by 2013. The state-run firm submitted to the regulator Director General of Hydrocarbons an appraisal program of the discoveries it had made in KG offshore basin, putting the in-place reserves at 6.37 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf), industry sources said. Besides natural gas, ONGC also plans to produce 8,000 barrels of oil per day from the fields. The reserve estimates and production plan in ONGC's appraisal program, however, do not include its ultra-deepwater UD-1 discovery in KG-DWN-98/2 block adjacent to Reliance Industries' prolific gas discovery block KG-D6.