Scottish explorer Cairn Energy has struck an estimated 20 million tonnes of oil and gas reserves in Rajasthan.
Cairn Energy Plc found oil and gas in the RJ/ON/90-1 block, bordering Gujarat, where it had earlier made two discoveries, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik announced on Tuesday.
"Preliminary estimates of mean 'oil in-place' are about 155 million barrels (about 20 million tonnes). This together with earlier discoveries - Saraswati and Guda (in the same block) - total the in-place reserves to about 250 million barrels per day," he said.
The field is likely to produce one million tonnes of crude oil per annum in three years time, he said.
The Saraswati discovery had found 14 million tonnes of in-place oil reserves.
Exploration well RJ-E-1, which was drilled to a total depth of 3,476 metres, encountered four potentially hydrocarbon bearing intervals of which three were tested.
"A combined rate of approximately 200 barrels of oil per day and 7.3 million standard cubic feet of gas per day was recorded. At another level, 2.2 million standard cubic feet of gas per day flowed," he said.
The pre-NELP (New Exploration Licensing Policy) bidding block, which Cairn acquired from Royal Dutch Shell last year, produced sweet and waxy oil.
Cairn holds a 100 per cent interest in the Block RJ-ON-90/1 and ONGC has a right to 30 per cent of any development area resulting from a commercial discovery on the block.
