ON schedule

Bokaro, Aug. 30: After 10 years of exploration, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) will commence its pilot production of coal-bed methane gas from the Parbatpur area of Bokaro from December.

Initially, the company would produce 5,000 cubic metres of coal-bed methane gas, which will be raised to 50,000 cubic metres within 8 months and then to 4 lakh cubic meters per day from 2011. The production would be sustained for 10 years.

Accompanied by director (human resources) A.K. Balyan and director (exploration) D.K. Pande, ONGC chairman-cum-managing director R.S. Sharma visited the Parbatpur site this morning to oversee the hi-tech horizontal multilateral well drilling mechanism.

Sharma, who met newspersons today, said oil and gas resources are limited in the country and ONGC would tap non-conventional energy sources like coal-bed methane gas and underground coal gasification.

Rs 300 crore has already been invested in the coal-bed methane project in Jharkhand, with a total investment pegged at Rs 1,500 crore till 2011. Stressing that ONGC is not looking at commercial gains at present, the CMD said they aimed to improve local energy and economic requirements of the state.

The problem of land acquisition for the project was also addressed. “But with help from the district authorities, we hope to make progress,” Sharma said.

The director (exploration) estimated the availability of about 240 billion cubic metres of coal-bed methane gas from the state. He said they would run the programme for 25 years.

As production increases, employment opportunities would also be created for non-technical jobs.

Director (HR) A.K. Balyan said that as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), ONGC has already provided financial grants for the improvement in the healthcare and educational sectors.

It has also extended help to district authorities for augmenting infrastructure facilities like road maintenance, medical facilities and social forestry.