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GAIL (India) Limited

GAIL-Arrow consortium spuds first core well in CBM block

New Delhi, May 13, 2008. GAIL-Arrow consortium has commenced drilling in the Coal Bed Methane (CBM) block by spudding first core well in Tata Pani Ramkola Block in Surguja district, Chhattisgarh. The PEL for the block was executed by the State Government and the consortium members on 16th April 2008. A new core hole in the rig from M/s South West pinnacle, Australia was positioned at site last week. The operational base is at Wadrafnagar, Surguja District. The first well is planned to be completed within 15-20 days. The drilling activities in the block would be continued till the completion of all the eight core wells.

GAIL consortium is participating in three CBM blocks, such as RM block located in the Rajmahal coal basin in Jharkhand, TR block in Tatapani-Ramkola basin in Chhattisgarh and MR block in the Mand Raigarh basin in Chhattisgarh in CBM – III bidding round (2006). In RM (Rajmahal) and TR (Tatapani-Ramkola) CBM blocks, GAIL consortium includes Arrow Energy (India) Pty Limited (Arrow), Energy Infrastructure Group (EIG) and The Tata Power Company, whereas in MR (Mand Raigarh) block, the consortium partners are GAIL, Arrow and EIG. Arrow Energy is the Operator in all the three blocks. As per DGH, the resource potential of the RM, MR and TR blocks is 5.5 TCF, 4.2 TCF and 1.9 TCF respectively.

 

The work Programme for the first phase in these three CBM blocks includes drilling of 8 core holes and five test wells in each block. Core well drilling in the other two blocks is also planned and the work would start shortly.