Essar Group plans to develop its eight trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas reserves at its Raniganj (East) Block in West Bengal after it gets more clarity on the government’s Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP).
“We have informed the government about the in-place shale gas resources of around 8 tcf underneath the CBM play in the Raniganj (East) block, at least 3 tcf of which can be recoverable,” Manish Maheshwari, CEO-E&P, Essar said. “We will develop the shale gas once we get clarity from the government on pricing and other guidelines under HELP.” Essar currently produces one million scmd (standard cubic metres per day) from its Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Block in Raniganj, making it the country’s largest unconventional gas player.
“Shale gas got covered under the March 2016 HELP policy and the guidelines are under formalisation for blocks which covers both conventional and unconventional under the same acreages. We are looking forward to those guidelines,” Mr. Maheshwari said when asked about investments in developing shale gas to tap 8 tcf of gas.
“We have so far invested over Rs.3,300 crore in developing our CBM block and will invest another Rs.500 crore to achieve the targeted plateau production of 3 scmd from the block.”
A preliminary assessment of original in-place shale gas resources of around 8 tcf underneath the CBM play in the Raniganj (East) Block was undertaken with the support of USTDA (US Trade & Development Agency), by an independent US firm that has expertise in shale.
ONGC’s planState-owned ONGC is planning to spend Rs.700 crore in drilling shale oil and gas exploratory wells.
Essar, with an estimated 1.09 tcf of CBM gas, as estimated by Netherland Sewell & Associates, Inc. (NSAI), now sells gas to the industrial consumers in Durgapur at a price of $3.43 per mmBtu, according to government’s gas pricing policy of October 2014.
