India: First Shale Gas Bid Round to be Launched Soon

India will launch its first ever bid round for exploration of shale gas, as soon as the legislation changes are in place, according to oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) Director General S K Srivastava at the 14th Energy Summit organized by Assocham.

"As per the available data and studies undertaken, India has huge shale gas potential. Six basins, namely Cambay, Assam-Arakan, Gondawana, KG onshore, Cauvery onshore and Indo Gangatic basins, have been identified," he said while addressing the Summit today.

India aims to put in place a policy framework for exploitation of shale gas within the next year.  It has also signed a cooperation agreement with the US Geological Survey for knowledge sharing in the area of shale gas.

"This (shale gas) will add up additional resources in our hydrocarbon resource base," Srivastava said. "The government is formulating a policy for offering the areas for shale gas exploration in the near future," he added.

India has so far only explored and produced conventional oil and gas as well as unconventional sources like coal bed methane (CBM).

33 CBM blocks have been given out to companies for extracting gas from below coal seams and according to the Director, "CBM reserves to the tune of about 9 trillion cubic feet have been established in these blocks, having the potential to produce more than 5 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd)."

Source: The Economic Times