The danger of carrying out drilling and exploration activities in the densely-populated urban areas of Ahmedabad and Bharuch, which sit on huge reserves of oil and gas in the Cambay basin, looms large for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas now.
Under the new licensing policy (NELP-7) released by the ministry recently, about 11 national and international companies have bid for exploration of hydrocarbons in 102 sq km area in Ahmedabad. For the Bharuch blocks covering 257 sq km, as many as 13 companies are in the fray. The last day for receiving the bids is May 16.
India's oil ministry has for the first time offered a new category of blocks to attract non-E&P companies. Known as type 's' blocks (s meaning small), it includes nine of eleven such onland blocks in Gujarat's prospective Cambay basin.
The inclusion of such blocks lying amid highly-populated areas and non E&P companies in the race has raised concerns among industry experts.
"There are techniques like directional drilling that help explore oil is densely populated regions. However, for that, you need a well site 100m away from the populated site. This is next to impossible for places like Ahmedabad and Bharuch," said an oil and gas expert.
Thickly-populated south western Ahmedabad, encompassing Sabarmati and Gandhigram railway stations, Science City, several townships and societies lie in Block CB-ONN-2005/06, according to the bid document. Even a portion of the Gujarat high court is within the geographical boundary of this block, the document said.
The block, measuring 102 sq km lies adjacent to Ognaj Field operated by Selan Exploration and ONGC-operated Kalol field is to its east and to its west is GSPC-operated Sanand block. A similar problem exists for the 257-sq km CB-ONN-2005/11 block that has the bustling town of Bharuch over it.
Under NELP, a total of 57 blocks are on offer for exploration of oil and gas constituting 19 blocks in deepwater, 9 blocks in shallow waters and 29 blocks onland. Of these, 15 blocks are located in Gujarat.
The Cambay, an intracratonic rift basin in the western part of India, has a proven petroliferous area covering about 53,500 sq km. More than 90 oil & gas fields have been dicovered.
Over 7 km thick tertiary sediments are present here.
