Essar Oil becomes India’s biggest CBM producer
Essar Oil has become India’s largest coal bed methane (CBM) gas producer with output at its Raniganj field crossing 0.5 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd).
While nearly 100 wells are already producing, an additional 155 have been drilled and are at various stages of the hydrofracking-completion-dewatering cycle for further ramping up production, Manish Maheshwari, CEO, E&P said. The company has built high quality infrastructure gas conditioning and compression stations, in-field pipelines of 120 kilometers and last mile pipeline connectivity network to end-users 60 km away.
Essar is targeting completion of augmentation before May 2016. This as per its contract with the oil ministry. With a total investment outlay of Rs 4,000 crore, the Raniganj Project is a first-of-its-kind in India, aimed to responsibly produce methane from coal seams located 1,000 metres below or deeper.
