Essar Oil has been granted phase III environmental clearance for its coal bed methane (CBM) gas field at Raniganj, West Bengal, allowing it to increase drilling to 650 wells. So far, 135 wells have been drilled at Raniganj, of which 57 are in production. The drilling programme will now be accelerated. This environmental clearance allows the full field development of the Raniganj block, excluding forest area, and will enable Essar Oil to increase production to the targeted level of around 3 mcm/ day (1.1 bcm/year), up from around 60,000 m3/day (22 mcm/year) currently.
Raniganj, in which Essar Oil has a 100% interest, is a 500 km2 block with total proven and probable reserves (2P), independently evaluated by consultants Netherland, Sewell and Associates Inc, of 113 bcf gross (3.2 bcm), or 18.8 Mboe. There are also best estimate contingent resources (2C) of 445 bcf gross (12.6 bcm or 74.1 mboe) and 297 bcf gross(8.4 bcm or 49 Mboe), of current best estimate prospective resources.
Essar has already contracted gas sales from Raniganj to local industrial customers. The majority of the gas sold from the project is being sold to a new fertiliser plant being built approximately 30 km from the Raniganj field.