Petroleum exploration in Dailekh in final stage

By Kamal Sharma, Dailekh, Dec.17: Drilling work under the exploration of petroleum products in the Bhairavi Rural Municipality-1 Jalajle area of Dailekh, is in the final stage.

Geologist of the Petroleum Project Division under the Department of Mines and Geology Prakash Luitel said that 3,660 meters of drilling have been completed, and a total of 4,000 meters are to be drilled. 

The work was started last May so that the drilling work could be completed within four months. However, due to hard rock the drilling lengthened resulting in an extension of drilling time to be completed till December.  

He said, "We are collecting the details obtained from the stone and soil test done by the experts from every 2/2 meter depth of the deep drilling. Study on source rock, reserve wire rock, and seal rock will be added after finishing the drilling up to 2,700 meters." 

The signals under the necessary standards set to be petroleum products are being successfully received. 

For drilling, 45 ropani land has been acquired in Bhairavi rural municipality-1 Jaljale of Dailekh.

Currently, a group of 80 Chinese and Nepali people is doing drilling work. On February 28, 2019, an agreement was reached with the Chinese government to explore petroleum products within three years at Shirasthan Navisthan Paduka in Dailekh.

Petroleum products are being explored with a subsidy of 2 billion 500 million rupees from the Chinese government. Petroleum products will be discovered only after drilling to a depth of 4,000 meters.

Under the first phase of petroleum exploration and extraction, the Chinese technical team completed four surveys under the first phase, including a seismic survey, geological survey, magneto-telluric survey, and geochemical sampling survey.