Beijing:  India will be catapulted into the world's top 10 gas producing nations if the country's biggest natural gas discovery in the Krishna-Godavari basin is validated, a senior official said here yesterday (Dec 17, 2006).

"Once the gas comes out, we will join the select club of top 10 gas producing countries," Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, M S Srinivasan said here while commenting on the gas discovery by the public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC).

"Our negotiating power vis-a-vis other producers could considerably go up as a result of this major discovery," Srinivasan, who is accompanying the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Murli Deora told reporters here.

He said the initial estimate suggests that the well in the Bay of Bengal has reserves of about 21 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

"If the gas discovery is validated, it reserves would be equivalent to 20,000 MW of electricity for 20 years or 4,000 MW of electricity for 100 years," he said.