Cairn bullish on deal with ONGC on Rajasthan field

New Delhi, Jan 29 (UNI) Edinburg-based oil exploring major Cairn Energy has expressed confidence that the deal with state-owned ONGC to build a pipe-line to take oil from its Rajasthan fields will take off in the first half of this year.

Cairn's subsidiary Cairn India Ltd, which will execute the operations, has 69.5 per cent stake in its parent company.

ONGC Chief R S Sharma had earlier said that the Corporation and Cairn India have resolved differences for building the 340 million dollar pipeline to evacuate crude oil from Barmer (Rajasthan) to Gujarat.

''We have reached an understanding for setting up a pipeline to take the Rajasthan crude to Gujarat,'' Mr Sharma said.

The pipeline investment is expected to be shared between Cairn and ONGC in the ratio of 70:30.

Cairn-ONGC will build a 340 km line to IOC's Viramgam terminal in Gujarat. Viramgam is connected by pipelines to IOC's Koyali, Panipat and Mathura refineries, the potential customers of Rajasthan crude.

UNI