Cairn drills dry Palar well
Cairn India will hopefully have better luck with its second well at Palar basin offshore block PR-OSN-2004/1 than it did with the first.
Cairn spud second well PR-14/PR-04 last week using Aban's jackup Deep Driller 5 and plans to drill it to 1400 metres TD. As we publish, Cairn is running a 30-inch conductor.
"Next it will run the 13-3/8-inch and 9-5/8-inch casings," we hear. Aban mobilised Deep Driller 5 to Palar in February from Batam in Indonesia.
But the first well, spud in March and drilled to 1565 metres TD, turned out dry. "The first well wasn't tested," says a source.
"We didn't find anything." Cairn wants to drill three wells in water depths of less than 100 metres before the monsoon season begins in June. A subcontractor speculates Cairn might exceed its three-well commitment and drill a fourth well, depending on results.
Reluctant Cairn was pressurised to begin drilling by partners ONGC and Tata Petrodyne who didn't want to pay stiff penalties imposed by the DGH for unfinished work at the block, which controversially lies near the flight path of Indian space rockets.
