Mumbai, June 25: Cairn India will invest about $2 billion in the country over the next one-and-a-half years to develop oil fields and build a pipeline for transporting oil from Barmer in Rajasthan to the coastal areas of Gujarat.

Cairn had yesterday said the construction of the 600-kilometre pipeline from its Rajasthan fields had started. Larsen & Toubro has been given the engineering procurement and construction contract for the project.

At the company’s annual general meeting here today, Cairn India chairman Sir Bill Gammell said out of the $2-billion investment, $1.8 billion would be invested in the Rajasthan project and the rest would be used for blocks in the other parts of the country.

Cairn is developing three fields in Rajasthan at Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya.

It is also planning to start test drilling in the Ganga valley block in Bihar by the end of the current year or early next year.

Gammell said the company was confident of delivering oil from the Mangala field by the second half of 2009 followed by the Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields in 2010.

“Subject to regulatory approval, the estimated sustainable plateau rate of production from these fields has increased from 150,000 barrels per oil day to 175,000 barrels per oil day, Sir Bill said.