Shri Santosh Gangwar,
Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, informed
the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has
awarded a Coal Bed Methane (CBM) block in Jharia coal field
in Bokaro District of Jharkhand including the Parvatpur Sector,
to the consortium of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited
(ONGC) and Coal India Limited, for exploration and production
of CBM and the contract has been signed on 6th February,
2003. ONGC had earlier taken up the R&D activities in the
Parvatpur sector.
Shri Gangwar further
informed the House that as per the terms of the CBM Policy,
the Work Programme has been divided into four phases as follows:-
|
Phase
|
Nature
of work
|
Maximum
Duration
|
|
I.
|
Exploration
|
3 years
|
|
II.
|
Pilot assessment
for commerciality of production and market identification
|
7 years
|
|
III.
|
Development
|
5 years
|
|
IV.
|
Production
|
25 years
|
The contractor
has a walkout option at the end of Phase-I & II under the
CBM Contract. The work can be started by the above consortium
as per the work programme after the issue of Petroleum Exploration
Licence (PEL) by the Government of Jharkhand. The Minister added
that as per the CBM policy, the Contractor is at liberty to
market the CBM produced from this block.
