Cairn India, the oil and gas arm of London-listed Vedanta Resources, is planning a capex of Rs 16,000 crore or $3 billion for finding and producing more oil over the next three years through the end of FY 2016.

This was announced by company Chairman Navin Agarwal at Cairn India’s seventh Annual General Meeting held here on Wednesday.

In Rajasthan alone, the company will be investing over Rs 13,000 crore and drilling over 450 wells comprising 100 exploration wells and over 350 development wells.

“This programme which will be fully funded from the company’s cash resources, targets adding 530 million barrels to its reserves," added Agarwal. The company is also set to ramp up its gross crude oil production to about 2,35,000 barrels a day by the end of the current fiscal from 2,05,000 barrels a year currently.

This increase of about 30,000 barrels per day would come from increase in crude production from its oil fields in the Rajasthan block to about 2,10,000 bpd from 1,75,000 bpd at present.

manisha.jha@thehindu.co.in