Govt Still Looks To Us Navy Lab For Gas Hunt

The petroleum ministry, unmindful of sanctions, is going ahead with preparations to collaborate with the US Naval Research Laboratory for tapping gas hydrate reserves.

Though the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has not shown interest in the project, the petroleum and defence ministries recently held a meeting to give final shape to the joint draft memorandum of understanding between NRL and the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).

The draft MoU will be considered by the group of ministers before being submitted to cabinet for approval.

The petroleum ministry is hoping that sanctions will be lifted shortly and the project should be ready then.

 

Officials said they had not received any communication from the US defence department abandoning the project.

Though the US laboratory had sent a draft agreement to GAIL for collaboration in the research programme in December 1997, it could not be signed because of bureaucratic delays at the Indian end. Then came the nuclear tests and the subsequent sanctions that prohibit any links by US defence firms with India.

This is the first project in the Indian hydrocarbon sector to be affected by the sanctions.

The Indian government had decided to launch the first phase of the four-phase Rs 213-crore National Gas Hydrate Programme.

The petroleum ministry had even held a series of meetings for deciding on the award of a contract for carrying out a seismic survey of the potential offshore areas using a special technology, called the deep towed acoustics geophysics system (DTAGS).

The Indian government had also set up an expert committee consisting of I L Budhiraja, advisor (technology), GAIL, Kuldeep Chandra, director (exploration), ONGC, and M N Bhatnagar, deputy general manager, DGH, to recommend a framework of the gas hydrate development programme that could ultimately lead to an investment decision for taking up commercial production.