Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi dedicated the most awaited 350-km Dhobi-Durgapur stretch of the Urja Ganga natural gas pipeline project to the nation.
Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Ltd (EOGEPL) witnessed a landmark and a proud moment on Sunday when our Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi dedicated the most awaited 350-km Dhobi-Durgapur stretch of the Urja Ganga natural gas pipeline project to the nation and will soon begin supplies to customers across the region, thus fulfilling its commitment to the people of the eastern India.
The company operates the Raniganj East Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Block in West Bengal. In August 2018, EOGEPL had signed a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) to sell gas produced from the block to state-owned gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd for a 15-year period. Essar has invested about Rs. 5000 crore towards developing the entire Raniganj asset over many years.
Amongst the top dignitaries present at the virtual inauguration of the pipeline were Mr Prashant Ruia, Director, Essar Capital, Mr. BC Tripathi, Vice-Chairman Essar Capital, Mr. Santosh Chandra, CEO, EOGEPL,Mr. Surinderjeet Singh Alhuwalia, Member of Parliament representing the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency, and Mr. Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
“As Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi dedicates the Dhobi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline, a vision achieves reality. With investments of Rs 5000 crore made towards our Raniganj block, it is an honour for Essar to be part of this vision of providing clean energy to India,” said Mr. Ruia, commemorating this momentous occasion.
“The government of West Bengal must be complemented for their sustained development work over the years. I congratulate them for the strong steps they have taken to help the state transition to clean energy. With the commissioning of the Dhobi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline, gas from EOGEPL’s Raniganj block will be made available to GAIL India, thereby helping the people of the region with the availability of best-in-class fertisilers.,” he added.
"This is a watershed moment for the people of eastern India who will now get access to clean and green fuel, thanks to Essar and GAIL India’s sustained work over the years. Essar will be one of the proud suppliers of gas via the Urja Ganga pipeline, and are confident that it will change the very economic landscape of the eastern region and bring in prosperity and growth in line with the government’s Purvodaya initiative”, said Mr. Tripathi.
While, the man at the helm of executing this event, Mr. Santosh Chandra, CEO, EOGEPL said, “This is a momentous occasion for us at Essar Oil and Gas E&P Limited, as we are one of the primary partners of GAIL in Eastern India for gas supply to the ambitious Urja Ganga pipeline, which was just inaugurated by our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. I am confident that our PM’s vision of making India a gas-based economy, together with Atma-Nirbhar Bharat, is on the right track, and we will contribute more and more of the indigenous gas to make clean energy transition happen through production of our coal bed methane gas. The government of West Bengal must also be complemented for their sustained work over the years.”
EOGEL had last year reached a peak production capacity of 438 million cubic meters per year in the Raniganj asset and will ramp up production now that the pipeline has been commissioned and expand its customer base from current industries in the nearby areas to far and beyond districts in the eastern region.
It plans to start the balance drilling and associated development task of around 250 additional wells as part of an expansion plan to achieve the sales volume of 1 billion cubic metres.
India is one of leading gas consuming nations in the world and Shri Modi’s vision of having a one nation- one gas grid is an important step in making India a gas-based economy.
The government is therefore focussing on creating a robust gas-pipeline infrastructure network.
The Dobhi-Durgapur stretch of the Urja Ganga pipeline project will directly benefit not only West Bengal but also 10 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand. It will also provide gas as feedstock to fertiliser plants, CNG to vehicles and piped gas to the homes of the region. Next to be completed in this stretch is the Durgapur-Haldia stretch of Jagdishpur-Hadlia and Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline.
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