Ruias-owned Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production will invest up to Rs 3,000 crore in its flagship coal bed methane (CBM) block in Raniganj, West Bengal to raise gas production.

“We are determined to raise our contribution to India’s ov­erall gas output to 5% in the next five years from 1% currently. We plan to invest around Rs 3,000 crore to reach this target,” said Pankaj Kalra, CEO of Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production.

Kalra added that the company has an acreage of 500 square kilometer, of which it has only harnessed 70 square kilometer. Kalra said, “So, over 80% is still to be harnessed”.

CBM is natural gas stored or absorbed in coal seams and contains 90-95% methane. According to the directorate general of hydrocarbons, India has the fifth largest proven coal reserves in the world and, therefore, holds significant prospects for exploration and exploitation of CBM.

The Raniganj field has a total inplace resource of 4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas and over the last ten years since it started to produce, only 92 billion cubic feet (BCF) or 0.92 TCF has been extracted.

“Our recovery has not even been 2-2.5% of the resource,” said Kalra, adding that the company will drill new wells and expect that it will increase the production to almost 4 to 5million standard cubic meters of gas from the current 0.93 million standard cubic meters.