Essar bags 3 more CBM blocks

Ruias-owned Essar Oil has bagged three more coal bed methane (CBM) blocks and Arrow Energy of Australia two areas after a panel of secretaries rejected the bids by Deep Industries-led consortium.

An Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS) yesterday rejected bids by Deep Industries-led consortium as it did not meet the qualifying criteria,sources in know said.

Deep Industries-led group walked away with seven out of the eight CBM blocks,bids for which were received at the close of auction on October 12.

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The panel of top bureaucrats decided to award the blocks where Deep Industries-led group was provisional winner,to the second highest bidder.

Essar Oil got the Talcher,IB Valley and Sohagpur blocks on top of the one block it had bagged on October 12,making it the biggest CBM player. The Raniganj block,it got in previous round,has been certified to hold more than 1 trillion cubic feet of ecoverable gas reserves. Gas sales from this block is to begin in next few weeks.

Sources said ECS adjudged Arrow Energy as winner of Assam and Satpura blocks while Great Eastern Energy was awarded one block. Deep was the only bidder in the seventh block which would now be put up for bidding in the next round in 2010.

Government had invited bids for 10 CBM blocks from companies wishing to extract gas from below coal seams. The bids closed under the fourth round of CBM block auction on October 12 with eight areas getting bids.