Reliance Industries begins Coal Bed Methane production at Sohagpur Block

24 Apr 2017

Reliance Industries started commercial production from its coal bed methane (CBM) block at Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh and aims to scale up output to emerge as one of the largest producers of unconventional natural gas in India, the company said on Friday.

RIL’s block, SP(West) -CBM-2001/1, started production on March 24 and is currently supplying CBM for the commissioning of the Shahdol-Phulpur pipeline. “Production from Sohagpur CBM fields will gradually ramp up in the next 15-18 months, making RIL among the largest unconventional natural gas producers in India,” it said. The company bagged licence to explore two adjacent CBM blocks, SP(West) and SP (East), with an area of 995 square km in the first round of CBM block bidding by the government in 2001.

The government is keen to increase production of environment friendly natural resources, such as CBM which is found trapped in coal beds. RIL has drilled more than 200 wells connected to two gas gathering stations in the first phase of development. It plans to drill 600-800 wells more and develop associated infrastructure over the next phases of development.

Reliance Gas Pipelines, a subsidiary of RIL, has laid the 302-km Shahdol-Phulpur gas pipeline that connects Sohagpur CBM fields from Shahdol to the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline network of staterun gas transporter GAIL at Phulpur. With this new pipeline network, these CBM gas fields are now connected with the Indian gas grid, the company said in a media release.

Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com