Essar Needs More Land For Full Scale CBM Operations in West Bengal

Essar Enery’s plans for full-fledged coal-bed methane production from the Ranigunj block needs more acres of land.

“We need around 1,000 acres to drill 500 wells, which we plan to do in the next 18 months,” Essar Oil Project Director Shashank Shekher told reporters, Business Line reported. The company has 180 acres and has drilled 85 wells for exploration.

Shekher said that with the current land, the company can drill another 70-75 wells, but for 400-500 wells for full-fledged production of CBM we need more land.

The company was facing issues in direct negotiations with farmers along with pricing, company sources told Business Line.

Ranigunj block is the first CBM block with Essar of three blocks in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Currently, Essar produced 28,000 standard cubic metre of gas per day. Its optimum estimate was one trillion cubic metres per day when optimum wells begin production.