Great Eastern Energy grabs 25% stake in ONGC's block

Stake in the block in West Bengal was acquired through a competitive bidding process that was announced in January this year

Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL), India’s leading coal bed methane (CBM) company has grabbed 25% stake in state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Raniganj (North) Block  in West Bengal through a competitive bidding process.

The bidding processs was announced in January this year.

Raniganj (North) Block is adjacent to the current Raniganj (South) Block of GEECL in the state of West Bengal.

The gas-in-place in the entire Raniganj (North) Block as per the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) is 1.5 trillion cubic feet, the company said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Great Eastern already has 100 per cent ownership of the Raniganj (South) block.

GEECL accepted the ONGC offer on May 17, which is subject to execution of farm-in related and joint operatorship agreements with ONGC (along with its consortium) and the approval from the government of India, the statement added.

“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,” said Prashant Modi, President and chief operating officer of GEECL.

In January,  Modi had told Business Standard that it has already already drilled 130 wells, out of the total 300 in Ranigunj (South) block. The block has already seen an investment of more than Rs 1,000 crore till now. Currently, it is producing an average of 14.73 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd), which we would like to increase to 100 mmscfd in the next 4-5 years, with an additional investment of Rs 1,500 crore.