Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Indian Drilling Company

I just returned from a week in Calgary with my new client Mohit Gupta of Geo Drilling Ltd., a coal bed methane (CBM) start up in India.

I met Mohit when I was in Delhi in 2004 as part of the speaking tour that I did in connection with the launch of my book, Lessons from the Edge. Mohit was the president of the Entrepreneurs' Organization chapter in Delhi and was my host during my stay.

Mohit is now working with some partners with coal industry experience to build an Indian CBM drilling company. Apparently, while there are any number of traditional deep well drilling companies in India, there are virtually no competitors in this specialized space. Shallow well drilling for CBM requires unique skills.

My mandate is to find a Canadian joint venture partner for Geo Drilling. While Geo Drilling has capital, labour and local expertise and contacts, they require a Canadian JV partner with the specialized skills to drill for CBM. We had a very successful trip. We identified a couple potential partners and we are now getting to know them better in order to identify the ideal partner. We will then negotiate the terms of the JV.

Its all gloom and doom here in Ontario these days. Real estate prices are drifting in the wrong direction and the lay offs in the manufacturing sector are piling up. Calgary on the other hand is in full fledged boom town mode. It was reinvigorating to be in an environment where there is a sense of confidence about the economy. I look forward to spending more time in Calgary and India as we put together this exciting Indo Canadian joint venture.