Ruias-promoted Essar Energy today said its coal bed methane (CBM) production from its Raniganj (East) block has crossed 1 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd).
"Essar has become the first company in India to achieve the 1 million milestone," it said in a statement.
CBM production assumes an added significance for West Bengal as hydrocarbon discovery on a commercial scale in the conventional reservoirs like sandstone or limestone is yet to materialise, it added.
With Raniganj (East) Block on stream, the quest for unconventional energy resources has begun in good earnest in West Bengal.
The Raniganj (East) Block has sizeable CBM reserves with 25-30 years of field life. The 2016 reserve report from Netherland Sewell & Associates, US, have certified the proven, probable and possible gross CBM Reserves in Raniganj (East) Block at 1.09 trillion cubic feet (TCF).
The Block is assessed to have additional resources in the 'contingent' category of around 270 billion cubic feet (BCF).
CBM offers a new energy frontier as India evolves to a gas based economy. Delivering 1 million scmd from Raniganj Block marks the beginning as the potential is tremendous, Essar Energy's CEO of Exploration & Production Manish Maheshwari said.
"The company has definitive plans to ramp up CBM production from 350 wells to 2 million scmd by March 2017 wells and reach a plateau of 3 million scmd by mid 2017-18," he added.
Essar has commenced supply of CBM, presently at around 200,000 scmd, for pre-commissioning activities to Matix Fertilisers, one of the world's largest single stream urea plant and the first designed for CBM as the feedstock, the firm said.
With installed capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum urea at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, Matix Fertilisers shall commence urea production using CBM from Raniganj in the third quarter of 2016-17, it added.
With a cumulative investment of Rs 3,300 crore, the firm has drilled and fracked nearly 300 wells and has established best-in-class infrastructure to produce, condition, compress and deliver CBM gas to industrial consumers in the catchment area of Durgapur.
