Cairn Oil & Gas has initiated the chase to charter multiple offshore rigs, as it prepares to launch an ambitious drilling campaign involving several acreages off India’s east and west coasts.

The private-sector giant owned by Vedanta Resources is “defining up to 20 potential new development projects to bring a substantial proportion of the 846 million barrels of oil equivalent” of gross best estimate gross contingent resources into production.

Cairn said its acreage position holds more than 3 billion boe of estimated gross unrisked prospective resources and it plans to drill up to 20 exploration wells in the next two years, targeting 500 million boe in gross unrisked resources.