Lanco protests disqualification in CBM block award

Lanco Infratech, a part of the Lanco Group, has expressed concern at reports of cancellation of the provisional award of coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks to a consortium led by Deep Ch4. Lanco was a partner with Deep in two CBM blocks in Orissa. The cancellation came as the consortium failed to meet certain criteria.

“We are surprised at cancellation of the award after we were declared provisional winners in October. There has been no communication either from the Director General of Hydrocarbons or the petroleum ministry. We will write to both of them to get a clarity on the reason behind the cancellation. As far as we understand, we have met all the criteria,” said Philip Chacko M, director (special projects), Lanco Infratech.

When asked, a petroleum ministry official said, “The provisional allocation is on the basis of the points from different criteria, while final allotment depends on the verification of all the records. If there has been a mistake, it will be corrected.”

A committee of secretaries had met last week to decide on award of blocks to the bidding companies. According to its decision, Ruias-promoted Essar Oil bagged three more CBM blocks and Australia’s Arrow Energy two; it decided to reject bids by the Deep-led consortium. The consortium had earlier walked away as provisional winners with seven out of the eight CBM blocks, bids for which were closed on October 12.

The secretaries’ panel decided to award the blocks where the consortium was the provisional winner to the second highest bidder. Essar got Orissa’s Talcher, Ib Valley and Sohagpur blocks on top of what it had bagged on October 12.