Thirteen leading American companies have so far shown interest in bidding for coal bed methane blocks in India. Five domestic companies have also visited data centres to study the prospects of these blocks.

Under the second round of bidding for CBM blocks, the government has invited bids for nine blocks for exploration and production of methane gas. These blocks have a combined resource of about 500 billion cubic metres of gas.

The nine blocks are one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh -- partially in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and two each in Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

In the first round of bidding, when the government had offered seven blocks, not a single foreign company had put in bids.

Among the American companies that have visited the data centre in Houston are CDX Gas, Burlington Resources and Okland Oil.

One Indian company that visited the centre was Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd. Four Indian companies have visited the data centre in New Delhi.

These companies are the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd and Essar. Sources in the directorate-general of hydrocarbons said Gail and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd were also expected to visit the Delhi data centre shortly.

Moreover, since the DGH had contacted 90 firms worldwide to bid for the CBM blocks, it is expected that at least seven more foreign firms will visit the data centres in August. The closing date for the bids is October 15.