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• The London Stock Exchange's alternative investment market (AIM)-listed Great Eastern Energy Corporation (GEECL) has approached Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for exploring its (OBGC's) coal bed methane (CBM) blocks in Bengal. ONGC has several unexplored CBM blocks in Bengal. State commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee said if the deal is struck, GEECL may invest another Rs 4,000-4,500 crore in the state. GEECL chairman and chief executive officer Yogendra Kumar Modi said the company is investing Rs 2,500 crore for expanding its Ranigunj project, work on which will start within March. The country's first CBM-producing company has already invested Rs 1,000 crore in the Raniganj project, which has an output of 8.3 million cubic feet per day. "With expansion, production will double. We have around 25 clients now, including SAIL and other industrial clients from the Durgapur-Asansol belt," Modi told reporters after meeting Partha Chatterjee at the Bengal Leads 2012.

• After tapping clean gas, GEECL passes it on to its industrial clients in that zone through pipelines. Modi said there is a huge demand for this gas in the region. Asked whether the firm will have enough clients to supply gas expansion, he said: "There is demand and the company will be able to meet that demand of the existing clients after expansion." The company also had some security-related problems, which Modi confirmed have been resolved after the state government had intervened and increased patrolling in the zone. Incidentally, GEECL has around 100 wells in the Raniganj area. It also produces CNG by compressing CBM and supplying it to Durgapur area for transport requirements. Besides GEECL, Essar Group has also started exploration of coal bed methane in Raniganj belt and is operating around 50 wells. Both GEECL and Essar are also planning to bring CBM to Kolkata through pipelines for transport and industry sectors.

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