Jul 12, 2012, 08.23 AM IST

John Energy start drilling programme at GSPC-GAIL's NELP VI

Oil and gas sector company John Energy has begun a three well exploratory drilling programme for GSPC-GAIL at its 4,613-square km NELP VI land block in Rajasthan.

Source: PTI

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Oil and gas sector company John Energy has begun a three well exploratory drilling programme for GSPC-GAIL at its 4,613-square km NELP VI land block in Rajasthan.

GSPC-GAIL 'squd' the first well on June 10 using a 1000-hp John rig. It is targeting the Jodhpur sands formation and is likely to take up to 35 days to drill each well to 1,800 metres, prospecting for 'light oil'.

Any 'light oil' discovered will be mixed with 'heavy oil' from two wells drilled earlier at the block in 2011. Yet another well drilled in February this year was plugged and abandoned after it turned out dry.

In total, the consortium has committed to drill six exploration wells in Phase-I, which ends in November 2012, according to a release here.

John won the three-well assignment in April against competition from Essar, Quippo, Deep Industries and Shiv Vani .

GAIL and GSPC each hold a 22.22% stake at the block; HPCL has 22.22%, BPCL , Hallworthy shipping and Nitin Fire Protection System each old 11.11%. They signed the production sharing Contact with Government of India on March 2, 2007, the release said.

The NELP-VI block is situated in Bikaner-Nagaur basin in the Thar desert, adjacent to the India-Pakistan border.