Reliance Industries Ltd has made a gas find in a coal block in Madhya Pradesh. The company discovered 3.75 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves in Sohagpur coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has also certified the in-place reserves.This is RIL’s first gas find in the CBM blocks. Earlier, the company had found gas reserves in deep sea blocks off Andhra Pradesh coast and Orissa coast. The gas find in KG basin was to the tune of 15 TCF.While RIL has already informed the government of the discovery in Sohagpur West and East blocks, the DGH — petroleum ministry’s upstream oil and gas exploration nodal arm — has okayed the in-place gas reserves. According to DGH, V K Sibal, ‘‘Reliance has made a gas discovery and we have certified the in-place reserves at 3.75 trillion cubic feet.’’ However, there has not been any official statement by RIL on the find yet. CBM is primarily methane gas (80-95 per cent) which occurs in its natural state in coal or lignite bed seams. Sibbal said Reliance had completed first exploration phase in the Sohagpur blocks and is now entering the second phase. ‘‘Recoverable reserves will be established only after more test drilling,’’ he said, adding that Reliance will drill 12 development wells in the blocks.Reliance was awarded two blocks from the first CBM licencing round in 2001 — Sohagpur (West) and Sohagpur (East). On each block, it met its commitment to drill eight core holes in the Phase-I work programme, sources said.Moody’s may upgrade RelianceMUMBAI: Moody’s Investor Service, the global rating agency, on Monday announced that it would continue its review for possible upgrade of the ‘BA2’ ratings of RIL following the announcement of the demerger plan. Moody’s said greater clarity on the details of the demerger would be required before it could conclude its review of RIL, the largest private sector company in India. Meanwhile, Crisil has reaffirmed the outstanding ratings of ‘AAA/Stable/P1+’ on the debt instruments of RIL. This follows the approval by the board of RIL for the scheme of demerger of the telecommunications, power, and financial services businesses of RIL. CRISIL’s outstanding ratings on RIL’s debt instruments are so far based on a consolidated view of the refining, petrochemicals, telecommunications, and finance businesses of the Reliance Group. ‘‘The telecom business being in an investment phase, had hitherto depressed its return on capital employed. Henceforth, no financial support would be required towards telecom, leading to an improvement in the consolidated liquidity profile of RIL,’’ it said. ENS
