Also, the government has devised 21 data packages for the fresh foreign companies to accelerate the Project, according to Dr Somnath Sapkota, Chief of Petroleum Exploration Project.The government in January this year scrapped the licenses of all the foreign companies, including UK's KN Energy Group, USA's BBB Champions and Texana Resources Company among others after finding them idle on the same.
"Those companies did not initiate the work citing the security reasons," explained Dr Sapkota, also reasoning lack of clear acts and rules for the Project to gain ground.
Those companies were not secure about their investment in Nepal. Hence, they did backtrack from their assignment, added Sapkota.
The Department of Mines and Geology under the Ministry of Industry had formed a Project in the late 1990s to study the feasibility of the petroleum exploration in the country.
It had divided the country into various 10 zones within Chure hills and Terai region and assigned foreign companies for the same.
Similarly, Senior Geologist of the Project, Dr Ganesh Tripathi reaffirmed that the government is committed to further the exploration of petroleum without further ado. RSS
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