OREANDA-NEWS. Essar today announced that its Raniganj (East) Block in West Bengal has become India’s first CBM (Coal Bed Methane) asset to cross the 1 million scmd (standard cubic metres per day) production milestone. This makes Essar the country’s largest unconventional gas player. The targeted plateau production from the Block is 3 million scmd. As per  2016 NSAI (Netherland Sewell & Associates, Inc.) report, the proven, probable and possible gross CBM reserves in the Raniganj (East) Block is estimated at 1.09 tcf (trillion cubic feet). The Block is assessed to have additional resources in the ‘contingent’ category of around 270 bcf (billion cubic feet).

“We married talent with technology to transform reserves to production. In the last 12 months, the average well productivity has more than doubled, the gas break-out time in new wells has reduced to days instead of months, and the work-over cycle has reduced to a fifth. Our collaborative relationship with international service providers has resulted in win-win solutions,” said Mr Manish Maheshwari, CEO-E&P, Essar.

Essar has commenced supply to Matix Fertilisers for its pre-commissioning activities at the rate of 150,000 scmd. Besides Matix, the CBM gas is being supplied to industrial consumers in the catchment area of Durgapur. The gas pricing is in compliance with the government notified formula of October 2014.

Mr Maheshwari added. A study, which was undertaken with the support of USTDA (US Trade & Development Agency), by an independent US firm that has expertise in shale has made a preliminary assessment of original in-place shale gas resources of around 8 tcf underneath the CBM play in the Raniganj (East) Block.