Chief executive Bill Gammell said Cairn was moving rapidly from discovery to production in Rajasthan, according to Indian media reports.

Gammell said exploration and appraisal was showing the basin would not only provide substantial oil production and cash flow from its large northern fields, but would also provide future growth and re-investment potential for Cairn from other existing and yet-to-be-discovered reservoirs and smaller fields.

Cairn currently estimated total oil in place in the 12 discoveries to date to exceed 2.5 billion barrels.

The company was making good progress fast-tracking development of the three largest northern discoveries, Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya, which had independently certified 2P reserves of 1.64 billion barrels from the Fatehgarh reservoir.

Combined production for these fields was planned to be between 120,000 and 150,000 bopd, with first oil from Mangala scheduled from the end of 2007.

Cairn had previously announced a further nine discoveries in the basin which, subject to successful appraisal, it intended to develop, said Gammell.