February 28, 2013, 9:26 pm
The Island
The Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat (PRDS), the agency under the Presidential Secretariat responsible for regulating and managing all Petroleum Exploration and Production activities in Sri Lanka, has announced plans to launch a Second Licensing Round in March, 2013.
Thirteen blocks have been designated in the Sri Lankan sectors of the Cauvery and Mannar Basins, located to the north and west of Sri Lanka, respectively. A further six ‘Joint Study Blocks’ have been designated in the unexplored, largely deep water areas to the east and south of Sri Lanka. The number of blocks to be offered in the Second Licensing Round will be located in the Cauvery and Mannar Basins and will be announced shortly, the government announced earlier this month.
The Mannar Basin hosts two significant and potentially commercial discoveries which were made by Cairn Lanka Private Limited (CLPL) in 2011. The first well drilled by CLPL, well CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z, discovered gas condensate in Cretaceous aged sandstones. The second well, CLPL-Barracuda-1G/1, made a separate gas condensate discovery.
in the western part of Block SL 2007-01-001, which had been awarded to CLPL in the First Licensing Round in 2007. CLPL’s third well, drilled to the north of the Dorado discovery, was a dry hole. CLPL has committed to a second exploration period on the block and is currently drilling its fourth well, CLPL-Wallago-50-H/1.
Speculative seismic data over the Mannar Basin suggests that it has significant potential for large, world-class structural and stratigraphic prospects in the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous syn-rift and post rift sections.
The Second Licensing Round will be launched in Houston on March 07th, with road shows and data rooms in Houston, London and Singapore. At each road show venue, PRDS staff will present a technical overview of the nominated blocks, and will discuss the Legal and Fiscal framework under which Production Sharing Contracts will be negotiated and awarded. Cairn Lanka will present their in-country experience, and the timetable for the round and bidding procedures will also be covered. In addition, the PRDS Director General and other senior staff will be available for private meetings with interested oil companies following the technical presentations.
The data room venues will be the Houston, London and Singapore offices of Seismic Micro Technology Inc.(SMT), by arrangement with IHS Global Solutions, who are managing the licensing round on behalf of PRDS, the government said.