Essar Oil,a global portfolio of onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks, with about 35,000 sq km available for exploration,is set to accelarate work related with digging wells for extracting coal bed methane in Ranigunj in Burdwan district of West Bengal.
This was ineveitable after the company acquired forest and environment clearance to fully develop Raniganj coal bed methane block.
”This means that drilling programme will be accelerated up to 650 wells from 135 currently so that the company can raise gas production to 3mln standard cubic metres per day (SCMD) from 60,000 SCMD currently”,said a senior Essar Oil official.
Essar Oil holds the largest coal bed methane exploration acreage in India. “So far, 135 wells have been drilled at Raniganj, of which 57 are in production. The drilling programme will now be accelerated”,said the Essar Oil’s website.
This company has over “750,000 bpsd (barrels per stream day) of global crude-refining capacity (Vadinar+Stanlow+Kenya). In marketing, the company operates a network of over 1,400 retail outlets across India, with another 200 under various stages of commissioning”,according to its website.
Even in Jharkhand,this company has been allotted coal bed methane block in Rajmahal in Santhal Pargana division in Jharkhand.