Production Sharing Contract (PSC) signed for gas exploration

New Delhi, Nov 16 (UNI) The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for 10th Block awarded under the III Round of Coal Bed Methane Policy (CBM-III) was signed here today by the Government with BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd for the blocks located in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

With this, the PSCs for all the 10 blocks offered under CBM-III has been signed completing the process to award blocks for exploration and production of CBM in the country.

The contract was signed by Joint Secretary, Petroleum Ministry D N Narasimha Raju, on behalf of the Government of India and Jonathan Evans, Exploration Director, South Asia Exploration on behalf of BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd.

Additional Petroleum Secretary Anil Razdan, Steve Peacock, President, BP West Asia and South Asia were also present.

The awarded block covers an area of 248 sq km with the prognosticated natural gas resources of 50 billion cubic metres (BCM).

The Government had offered 10 blocks for global competitive bidding by the corporate entities on February 23, 2006 under the CBM-III. The contract for other nine blocks were signed on 7th November 2006 with the other winning companies consortia.

CBM is an alternative source of hydro-carbons which is extracted from the coal seams from the coal bearing areas.

With huge coal reserves in the country, the CBM extraction would supplement the conventional sources of natural gas to help in bridging the big gap between demand and supply of natural gas. It will also make coal mining safer since the absence of methane would reduce chances of fire accidents in coal mines.

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