Nanowali Kothi (Sriganganagar), February 17
Exploration for oil and gas by a private company formally began here this afternoon.
Essar has bagged the bid for exploration in this part of Rajasthan and it will take two months to know whether the efforts have been worth it. Senior officers of the administration, besides local dignitaries, were present on the occasion.

According to officers at the site, drilling for oil and gas is an expensive business and it will take crores of rupees to just drill to the required depth. A company from Poland had been given a contract by the government to ascertain whether there were oil or gas reserves. The team comprising geologists and geophysicists carried out extensive seismic surveys in 1997-1998 in Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Raisinghnagar and Jaisalmer.

It was recommended that there was “a very high possibility of striking it rich” in this village and 30 other places in this district over a radius of nearly 250-300 km, a land dotted with sparse vegetation, small hamlets and imposing sand dunes.

The company successfully executed similar projects in Qatar, Muscat, Doha and Saudi Arabia. Projects have also been completed for other companies at Cambay, Ahmedabad and Hazira.

The present piece of land, five bighas, has been leased from a farmer who is being paid compensation. In case oil or gas is struck, the farmer will be paid further but all material rights will vest with the state government, an official revealed.

He said a team had been camping here for the past two months to put huge pieces of equipment in place. A well was dug and the drilling rig was put into place along with other allied equipment.

“Once drilling begins, we cannot stop and work goes on round the clock till the desired depth is reached. It is time consuming but certain precautions, in the eventuality of a blow out, have to be taken well in advance,” he said.

“The mud is continually pumped out and is analysed by experts here who then give day to day instructions. The programme has been given to us and the equipment we use is so sophisticated that it will pick up even a trace of oil or gas.

A well yielding oil will also give gas but not vice versa.

That is why we have to instal blow-out preventors (BOPs) by which we can control the flow of both gas and oil and prevent a fire,” he said.