Coal-bed methane block to Geopetrol International

By Our Staff Reporter


Bhopal, Aug 19:

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has provided a block in the 609 sq-km Sohagpur Coalfield, in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol and Umaria districts, to France-based Geopetrol International Incorporated consortium Reliance Natural Limited and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd for prospecting coal-bed methane.

A petroleum exploration deed was inked here yesterday by the consortium's members and the state government in the presence of Minister of State for Energy and Mineral Resources Rajendra Shukl.

Director (Geology and Mining) R K Sharma, Geopetrol's J K Talukdar, Reliance Natural's Dr V K Rao and Reliance Infrastructure's Dr Daisy Gogoi were signatories. The block is estimated to have about 2.0 trillion cubic ft gas and in the wake of successful exploration the daily output will be to the tune of 30 lakh cubic m.

The gas possesses the potential to be used in power generation, small and medium industry, as cooking gas and in transport.

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