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Mumbai, Jan 7 (UNI) Engineering and construction major, Larsen&Toubro (L&T) today announced that it has won two major contracts worth Rs 1,300 crore from Cairn India for the construction of civil works and consolidated construction works for the Northern Area Development Project, located near Barmer in Rajasthan, as Cairn India and its joint venture partner, ONGC get ready for first oil production in 2009.

The scope of work covers the development of infrastructure facilities, construction of 18 well pad structures, detailed engineering and construction of all civil and electromechanical works at Mangala and Raageshwari fields, offsite infrastructure facilities, supply, installation and commissioning of 33 KVA high voltage power line system and telecom network.

The order was secured by L&T against both domestic and international competition, and the project is scheduled to be completed in 18 months, the Company stated in a release.

The Mangala processing facility will cover some 400 acres at Thar desert in Rajasthan. The construction team would have to move approximately six million cubic metres of rock and soil to prepare the site for development. The main access road to the Mangala site has already been constructed.

Cairn Energy India has drilled more than 140 wells and has made more than 20 discoveries till date in Rajasthan. The Indian Government has given its approval for field development plans for the Mangala, Aishwarya, Saraswati and Raageshwari fields.

The initial focus would be to bring Mangala on stream at the earliest opportunity, which is currently scheduled for 2009, followed by other fields.

Cairn has a resource base of 3.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place. The implementation of the field developmental activities would lead to a step change in oil production levels for the Company when its targeted production level of 1,50,000 bopd is reached.

This project would make a significant contribution towards reducing India's current oil supply/demand imbalance.

Announcing the order, President (Engineering and Construction Projects) and Board Member K Venkataramanan said, ''L&T is proud to be associated with Cairn in being able to leverage our own strengths to boost India's need of fuel resources. Our technology and dedicated team will be able to deliver the job on time.'' UNI VK NM SM1143