JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Government is going to vigorously pursue the demand for setting up a well-head refinery at Barmer where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this past weekend dedicated to the nation the Mangala oilfields.

Cairn India on Wednesday said it will invest about $2 billion in the country over the next 18 months for developing oil fields and building a pipeline that will deliver oil from Barmer in Rajasthan to the coastal areas of Gujarat. "Out of the $2 billion investment, $1.8 billion will go in Rajasthan alone and the remaining will be used for other blocks in other parts of the country,' Cairn India chairman Bill Gammell said at the company's annual general meeting here. Cairn India is developing three fields in Rajasthan

About 8,000 ha in the restricted area along the India-Pakistan border has been sold to unknown buyers from across the country in the past five years. The bought land in Barmer and Jaisalmer districts belongs to the residents of the area and the Border Security Force. The deals were struck through agents in Jaisalmer and the buyers are listed from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, among other places. But their addresses and names are incomplete.