KG junket for Gujarat lawmakers
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is offering all 182 legislators in the Gujarat state assembly a free trip to the KG Basin to witness with their own eyes E&P work at GSPC’s discovery block KG-OSN-2001/3.
Modi’s surprise offer, confirmed in a phone call to this report from his office, follows angry exchanges on the first day of the budget session on June 23 with opposition Congress party legislators accusing BJP state energy minister Saurabh Patel of inflating reserves estimates. Earlier in the week Patel was widely quoted telling the state assembly that GSPC had established proven gas reserves of 10.8-tcf in 11 of the 15 wells drilled in the 1850-sq km block.
“GSPC has spent a sum of Rs.3778cr ($839m) on exploration,†said Patel.
“Three wells have shown no gas flows while testing is yet to be done on one well,†he said. Until now, the DGH has publicly endorsed only a figure of 1.38-tcf for well KG-8 following submission of a declaration of commerciality in December 2007.
