Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has won five of the nine coal bed methane blocks on offer, while Reliance Industries Ltd has clinched three.

The government had received 14 bids for eight out of the nine blocks on offer for exploration and production of gas from coal seams, while the Godavari block GV(North)-CBM-2003/11 elicited no interest, official sources said in New Delhi.

RIL took two Rajasthan blocks as the lone bidder, but outbid ONGC in the Chattisgarh block.

ONGC walked away with two blocks as the lone bidder, and its technical strength proved too big a barrier to its strongest competitors -- RIL and the Coal India-Gail combine -- in the other three closely contested blocks.

Sources said the awards, approved by the directorate general of hydrocarbons, will be put before the Cabinet for approval.

ONGC beat Great Eastern Energy Corporation and the Coal India-Gail combine to wrest SK-CBM-2003/II block in Jharkhand, while RIL took the Barmer coal field based CBM blocks of BS(1)-CBM-2003/II and BS(2)-CBM-2003/II in Rajasthan, where it was the sole bidder.

ONGC was the sole bidder in the ST-CBM-2003/II block in Madhya Pradesh.

The Coal India-Gail combine lost NK(West)-CBM-2003/II block to ONGC, while ONGC-Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation pipped RIL in BS-(3)-CBM-2003/II block in Gujarat.

The WD-CBM-2003/II block in the Wardha coal fields of Maharashtra also went to ONGC on a single bid basis.

Reliance outbid ONGC for Sonhat block SH(North)-CBM-2003/II, in the Gondwana coal fields.