Petroleum exploration in Dailekh progresses; merely 70 meters of drilling left

KATHMANDU: The exploration of petroleum products underway here has come to a final stage.

As of Wednesday, 3,930 meters of drilling work has been completed, with merely 70 meters left, the Department of Mines and Geology informed.

Drilling for petroleum products and natural gas exploration had begun in Jaljale area of Bhairabi Rural Municipality-1 in Dailekh district on May 10.

Chief of the Department’s petroleum project, Ganesh Nath Tripathi shared that the drilling was underway with the target of completing the work this month.

In the first phase, the Chinese technical team had completed seismic survey, geological survey, magneto telluric survey and geo chemical sampling survey on time, while the drilling work would also be completed before the stipulated time.

The project is being implemented with grant assistance amounting to Rs 2.5 billion from the Chinese government.

Under the project, 45 ropanis of land was acquired at Jaljale for drilling.

A group of 80 people, including Chinese and Nepali, is carrying out excavation.

The Department, China Geological Survey and Cibu Drilling Engineering Company are implementing the project.