India to get gas from below coal seams soon

With over 6 trillion cubic feet of coal bed methane gas already discovered, India will be producing gas from below coal seams by 2007-08.

"The government has awarded 26 coal bed methane blocks (or areas) under three rounds of auction so far. The total coal bed methane resource in 26 awarded blocks is 49.5 tcf," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha here.

He said till date total 6.24 tcf coal methane reserve has been established in four coal bed methane blocks. "The commercial production of coal bed methane is likely to start in 2007-08."

To another question, Patel said the total prognosticated resources of the country had been estimated at about 28 billion tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas. On April 1, 2006, hydrocarbons reserves of 8.7 billion tonnes has been established.

"Till December, oil and gas reserves have been established in 8 basins, viz Assam, Assam-Arakan fold belt, Cambay, Cauvery, Krishna-Godavari, Rajasthan, Mahanadi and Mumbai offshore," he said.

To a separate query, Patel said 10.793 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas demand in the country has been estimated for 2006-07. Of these, domestic demand is 9.785 million tonnes, while industrial requirement is 1.008 million tonnes.

He also said Bangladesh had expressed apprehension regarding two oil and gas blocks, namely D-22 and D-23, in Bay of Bengal offered under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VI) pointing out that these two blocks encroach upon Bangladesh maritime areas.

"However, the blocks lie within the exclusive economic zone of India. The government has already awarded these blocks in February and the production sharing contracts are to be signed on March 2, 2007," he said.