The Hindu Business Line : ONGC to commission Rs 950-cr coal bed methane project soon

Advertisement

Kolkata March 6 After prolonged delay, ONGC may start commissioning of its Rs 950 crore project for production and exploration of coal bed methane in six blocks in Jharkhand and West Bengal, in April this year.

The project, which includes drilling of 14 development wells and 22 pilot wells in the discovered fields of Jharkhand and Bokaro, respectively, was delayed inordinately due to problems in land acquisition and parallel permissions granted for captive coal mining in at least three CBM blocks under ONGC.

ONGC has awarded a turnkey contract to Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL)-led consortium for development and exploration of CBM in the six blocks in May 2006.

More land

A senior ONGC official told Business Line that the company had recently acquired land for four development wells in Jharia block and four pilot core-wells in Bokaro. "We are now looking forward to acquire the necessary land for a group gathering station (GGS) and approach roads to begin commissioning," the official said.

He, however, added that commissioning would not begin unless ONGC could acquire the required land for GGS. This is as per the agreement between ONGC and the project contractor.

"Discussions are on with the district collector and other local authorities for residual land acquisition. The position is not clear as yet. However, we are hopeful of giving a final go ahead to the project contractor by this month," he said.

Parallel commissioning

ONGC has already announced commercial CBM discoveries in both the blocks and estimated an initial production of 3.5 lakh cubic metre of CBM per day in a span of 31 months. As per the original proposal CBM was scheduled to start flowing beginning March 2007.

On complexities related to dual permission for CBM production and exploration and coal mining, the ONGC official said that the Centre had recently asked the Director General of Mine Safety (DGMS) and Central Fuel Research Institute (CFRI) to find out ways for parallel commissioning of both the projects.

Alternatively, ONGC will have the first right of commissioning its projects, since it was the first to secure license over the said blocks.

More Stories on : Outlook | Petroleum | Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page