The West Bengal government has executed a lease agreement with Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL) for exploration and mining of shale gas. The agreement would enable mining in GEECL’s existing coal block in Raniganj area in Paschim Burdwan district of West Bengal.

A similar lease would be signed with the Essar group for shale exploration in Durgapur region, next week. Both the shale gas mining projects together are likely to generate an investment of over ₹22,000 crore and create thousands of new jobs, a press release issued by the state government said.

Aims growth

The project would boost industrial activity by providing cleaner and cheaper energy and strengthen the transportation sector.

The exploration by Essar group is likely to bring in investment of up to ₹7,000 crore. It is expected to create over 5,000 jobs directly and thousands indirectly.

Development plan

According to Prashant Modi, Managing Director & CEO of Great Eastern, the company has amended its Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) and will now go ahead with its shale exploration program.

The GAIL pipeline installation is progressing well and offers the company an ability to deliver additional future production volumes to new customers and markets. Along with increasing demand for natural gas both in India and globally, the shale programme will support the overall growth strategy and vision of the company.

“We will now make plans for the initial core wells in the shale programme and, based on the results obtained, we will then progress to a development plan to drill pilot production wells,” he added.

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