Cairn Energy confirmed plans to start exploration work in the frontier area of Greenland in the second half as the company looks to repeat its success in India.
The oil and gas firm said it had agreed a contract to complete 2d seismic surveying work off the Arctic island, where it has acquired exploration licences covering a huge amount of under-explored territory.
Edinburgh-based Cairn also expects to start work in earnest off Tunisia, in acreage which the company acquired when it bought Plectrum Petroleum for £23m last year. The company is evaluating tenders for rigs to start drilling off the North African state in the second half.
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News of the developments came in an interim management statement covering the first quarter, issued by Cairn in compliance with new disclosure and transparency rules introduced by the Financial Services Authority.
In the statement, Cairn noted that the Indian subsidiary which controls acreage on which it made huge finds in Rajasthan state had won consent for a key pipeline. The company reiterated that it expected the pipeline to be built in time to start production from the huge Mangala field in 2009.
This should pave the way for a significant increase in output by Cairn, which produced 14,477 barrels oil daily from assets in India and Bangladesh on an entitlement basis in the first quarter.
Separately, Melrose Resources issued an interim management statement in which it said first-quarter entitlement production from assets in Egypt and Bulgaria was 8.7 billion cubic feet gas and 478 thousand barrels oil and condensate, up 64% on the same period in 2007.
Via [The Herald]
