July 27, 2010: The government may give additional time to Cairn India for exploring more oil and gas in its producing Rajasthan oil field provided the company agrees to pay levies in proportion to its stake in the energy asset. At present its 30% partner, state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), pays the entire royalty on crude from that section of the field where commercial production has already started. Cairn is the operator of the field with a 70% stake. "Cairn has expressed interest in exploring the Rajasthan block. But exploration phase in the block has expired and the company has to take fresh government approvals," an official in Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) said, requesting anonymity. Cairn discovered India's largest onshore oil after the Mumbai High in an area of the block named as the Mangala field in January 2004 and commenced oil production from August 2009. As per Cairn's website, its Rajasthan asset has 4 billion barrels of oil with a potential to produce 240,000 barrels of oil per day. Source: The Economic Times