CBM production: Has a breakthrough been achieved? – 27 Jan 2025

India has a massive 90 tcf of CBM reserves

But CBM contributes less than 1% to India’s gas production despite two decades of exploration and hundreds of drilled wells.

The problem is that the CBM blocks have fractured coal seams, low permeability and high costs, as a result of which India has not been able to tap these resources well

There is this instance of a Rs 5000 crore ammonia-urea plant that was set up and lying defunct for many years because it was meant to get CMB from the Essar block in Raniganj, and eventually it was only when the Urja-Ganga gas pipeline was commissioned, ferrying gas from the west coast, that the plant went on stream

In this context therefore, there seems to have been a breakthrough by one of the CBM companies, and this can well make the all important difference in getting CBM blocks to tap into the vast resources that we have and deliver results

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