Cairn India has sent a formal application to the government for getting its approval in the sale of its assets to Vedanta Resources.

The company has said that it will be meeting all the contractual requirements that are needed to make the deal a success.

Till now, three weeks have passed since Vedanta offered to buy assets of Cairn India. These are seven exploration blocks that it won as a part of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) rounds.

These fields also include the giant Rajasthan oilfield.

Said a senior official of the oil ministry, "We have received letters from Cairn and we are examining them. We will decide (on it) in due course."

In the document sent to the ministry, Cairn India has also written that the deal is about selling stake in the company which is going to be worth $8.478 billion and will be for 40-51 per cent shares.

The company also said in the letter that as per the rules it was only NELP that needed prior government approval and that there was no such requirement for pre-NELP fields.