Shale gas blocks to go under hammer

KOLKATA: The director general of hydrocarbons ( DGH) is likely to auction six shale gas blocks with reserves upwards of 50 billion cubic metre in Cauvery and Damodar basins. This will be the first auction for blocks in shale gas.

DGH will auction the gas trapped in sedimentary rocks — shale gas — on royalty and production-linked payments to the government Central Mines Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI), a Coal India subsidiary which is into exploration and consultancy, has recently completed analysing a data package given by DGH for a set of blocks and has estimated viable reserves in six blocks of which two in Raniganj, which is under the Damodar basin, have a total reserve of about 50 billion cubic metre. The rest of the blocks are in Jharia, under Damodar basin and in Cauvery basin.

“We found considerable reserves in Raniganj and four other blocks. We have recently submitted the data package handed over to us by DGH after it was analysed by CMPDI. We earned a revenue of Rs 40 crore for this data package,” CMPDI managing director AK Debnath said.