Essar Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Ltd (EOGEPL), the upstream arm of the Essar Group, is set to roll out a new drilling programme involving an estimated investment of about $100 million at its Raniganj East coal bed methane (CBM) block in West Bengal.
The proposed investment marks the next phase of development at Raniganj East, where EOGEPL currently produces around 1 million standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas, making it the largest CBM-producing block in India.
“Till date, EOGEPL has invested over ₹6,000 crore in developing the Raniganj East CBM block, including the drilling of 454 wells and the construction of more than 350 km of pipeline infrastructure. Over the last few years, the company has spent an additional ₹600 crore to drill around 100 wells, all of which are now on production,” said Pankaj Kalra, CEO, EOGEPL.
The Raniganj East block is estimated to hold around 4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of in-place CBM resources. The cumulative investment in wells, pipelines, and surface facilities with gas handling capacity of around 3 MMSCMD has created significant headroom for future production growth.
The drilling programme is expected to include pilot projects for horizontal CBM wells. Horizontal wells are increasingly being deployed in mature CBM plays globally to unlock additional reserves and flatten production decline curves.
“The company has outlined plans to increase production to around 5 MMSCMD by 2028, driven by a combination of incremental CBM drilling, improved recovery techniques and potential shale development” Kalra added.
EOGEPL has also been evaluating the shale gas potential within the Raniganj block. The company has conducted technical studies in collaboration with IIT Bombay and the University of Utah, which have indicated the presence of hydrocarbons and favourable geo-mechanical characteristics for shale development.
India has been pushing for higher domestic gas production to reduce import dependence and support the expansion of city gas networks and industrial consumption. CBM and shale gas are seen as key components of this strategy, particularly in coal-bearing basins such as Raniganj, which already have established infrastructure and proximity to demand centres.
