GEECL picks up 25% stake in ONGC's Raniganj CBM block

Great Eastern Energy Corp Ltd (GEECL) today said it has won a 25% stake in state- owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) Raniganj coal-bed methane (CBM) block in West Bengal.

The company in a filing to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) said: "It has been awarded a 25% participating interest in Raniganj (North) Block which was offered by ONGC through a competitive bidding process initiated in January, 2013."

Raniganj (North) Block sits next to GEECL's Raniganj (South) Block in West Bengal. As per the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Raniganj (North) holds an inplace gas reserves of 1.5 Trillion cubic feet.

GEECL has 100% of the Raniganj (South) block.

The company said it has accepted ONGC's offer on May 17, which is subject to execution of Farm-in related and Joint Operatorship agreements with ONGC and the approval from the Government of India.

GEECL President & COO Prashant Modi said, "We are delighted to have been selected as the preferred bidder by ONGC on this key CBM Indian development opportunity. This brings in another exciting area of development into our operations.

"We have demonstrated our capabilities in this sector through our Raniganj (South) block and we look forward to working with our partners and enhancing the reserve base of the company."

GEECL's Raniganj (South) block in Damodar Valley measures 210 square kilometres and has an estimated inplace reserves of of 2.40 Tcf of gas. The block started gas production from below coal seams (called CBM) in 2007.

In 2010, GEECL was awarded the Mannargudi block (667 sq km) in Tamil Nadu. The block as per the DGH holds 0.98 Tcf of inplace gas reserves.

On its website, GEECL said its exploration campaign on Raniganj (South) would entail drilling 300 production wells. Besides 50 core wells and 30 pilot production wells would be drilled on the Mannargudi block.