Barmer (Rajasthan), Aug 29 (Inditop.com) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday formally inaugurated Cairn India’s Mangala oil fields in Rajasthan, site of the country’s largest oil discovery in two decades.
At a function at the site, Manmohan Singh dedicated the fields to the nation. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot were present on the occasion.
Mangala’s peak production of 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) will be reached in the first half of 2010.
Along with the production at its Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields, the aggregate peak production by Cairn India will be 175,000 bpd or 20 percent of India’s domestic production – enough to power 3.4 million cars daily or fill up 4.5 million cooking gas cylinders a month.
The three fields are expected to save the country $1.5 billion annually as import bill over the next 10 years. It would also earn the government $30 billion across the life of the field by way of taxes, royalties and profit petroleum.
Deora has said the central government would get Rs.46,000 crore (Rs.460 billion) as profit petroleum revenue. The Rajasthan government would get another Rs.12,000 crore as royalty revenue for the first five years, he said.
India imports over 70 percent of its crude oil needs.
