Cairn Oil & Gas on Tuesday announced that it was entering into a technical partnership with US-based Halliburton Company for raising ten-folds the reserve base at its offshore assets as well as for exploring shale oil and gas in Rajasthan. Cairn, a unit of mining group Vedanta, is investing $3-4 billion in exploration and production of oil and gas across its portfolio that consists of the prolific Rajasthan block, Ravva oil and gas field in the Bay of Bengal and Cambay fields in western offshore. 

The company was targeting to reach 500,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas production in two to three years, including a fifth from offshore areas, its CEO Prachur Sah said today. 

“It is more than a technical partnership that we have entered into with Halliburton. We intend to use their technical expertise besides project execution capabilities,” he said. 

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. 

“Under this alliance, Cairn will work with Halliburton to pursue the target of increasing its recoverable reserve from offshore assets to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent – a ten-fold increase from the present cumulative of 30 mmboe,” the company said in a statement. 

Later talking to the PTI, Mr Sah said that Cairn currently produced 25,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas from offshore areas which was intended to go up to 100,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas with the partnership with Halliburton in three years. 

Cairn, he said, was committed to doubling its capacity, contributing 50 per cent to India’s domestic crude oil production and assisting the country in its goal of achieving energy autonomy.