The Hindu Business Line : `Rajasthan oil fields have immense potential'

Dr Mike Watts of Cairns Energy today said that Rajasthan oil fields have immense potential and the State is witness to some of the largest oil discoveries in the world since 1985.

Speaking at an international meeting hosted by the Association of Exploration Geophysicists (AEG), Dr Watts said, "Ravva alone has potential to grow to over $10 billion business and the revenues would significantly accrue to India and Rajasthan as taxes. Further, when the oil flows in Rajasthan, it will not only transform the company but also materially impact the economy of the region and in turn India."

Earlier, the Vice-President of RIL, Dr Ravi Bastia, who was conferred with the AEG award along with Dr Watts, said that RIL has made about 28 discoveries and named them sequentially after Dhirubhai Ambani and now holds potential for huge business through exploration.

The Director-General of Hydrocarbons, Mr V.K. Sibal, said "the success of future exploration strategies hinges upon our ability to integrate all our knowledge, resources, technology to find elusive mineral deposits that are important to the growth of economy."

Referring to data availability, Mr Sibal said over the years, valuable exploration data has been gathered. The entire data and knowledge bank is either lodged with the respective user organisation or has been irretrievably lost due to improper storage of the data. Similar is the story with data availability in various national research initiatives.

Mr Sibal said many companies including Reliance, GSPC and Cairn, along with national oil and gas companies, have been keenly pursuing several such blocks and their efforts have started yielding results. This is surely very encouraging for India as it strives towards energy self-sufficiency.

The Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, said the present hydrocarbon usage in India is about 2.5 per cent of the worldwide usage and this would grow to about 10 per cent by the middle of the century.

"Increase in share of nuclear energy in India's energy mix, beyond what is possible based on domestic programme, is desirable to minimise stress on global fuel resources," Dr Kakodkar said.

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