GEFCL to lay CBM gas pipelines

KOLKATA: Kolkata-based Great Eastern Energy Corp Ltd (GEECL), a YKM Holdings group company, plans to lay two pipelines of 12 km and 57 km to Kulti and Durgapur respectively from Asansol for selling additional coal bed methane-based gases to customers.

The company on Wednesday inaugurated its 11.5 km CBM gas pipeline from Shymadhi to Asansol for serving industrial customers in the Raniganj coal belt. The pipeline will also feed customers in the Burnpur-Asansol area. Further, it will feed pipelines connecting Kulti towards the west and Durgapur in the east.

"The Kulti pipeline project is nearly complete with only half a kilometer yet to be layed," GEECL president & COO Prashant Modi said. The company is also in talks with public sector steel major Sail for supplying to its Kulti unit. The company has already invested about Rs 350 crore on the venture so far.

GEECL is a natural gas company that focuses on exploration, development, production, distribution and sale of natural gas from coal-seams commonly known as CBM. The company has already laid 31.97 km of the pipelines which connect 22 wells to the gas gathering station.

It has also laid 11.82 km of the steel pipelines till January, 2009, which connects the central gathering station to Kulti, and is nearing completion.

The company has received right of use (RoU) from National Highways Authority of India for laying the pipeline from Asansol to Durgapur -- a 57 km stretch, and has started laying the pipeline on that route.

Great Eastern Energy Corporation / GEECL