Indian private sector player Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (EOGEPL) has lined up investments totalling 20 billion Indian rupees ($244 million), as it prepares to expand the potential of its flagship coal bed methane (CBM) asset in the eastern state of West Bengal.

Chief executive Pankaj Kalra told a local media outlet that additional investments in the Raniganj East CBM block will mean drilling 200 wells in the unconventional gas asset over the next 18 to 24 months.

EOGEPL is eyeing a sizeable increase in production from the CBM asset as it makes its fresh investment commitment.

Kalra said CBM gas production from Raniganj East will reach 3 million cubic metres per day in the long term, but a short-term increase is also forecast.

“We are employing the latest technology in the existing wells to ramp up production from 0.9 MMcmd to 1.3 MMcmd which will be completed in a few months”, Kalra told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Systematic approach

The company in its third quarterly results in February said that it is currently operating 350 wells in the block and “has taken up a systematic approach of good revival through the adaptation of world-class technology and stimulation techniques”.

EOGEPL said CBM production has been increasing after commissioning of the Urja Ganga Pipeline “with the availability of 100% gas offtake further buoyed by continued tailwinds in global gas prices”.

The company said it is working towards opening up new frontiers, “one of them being shale gas exploration which will help the company consolidate its position as one of the largest unconventional hydrocarbon players in the region”.

Kalra told the Indian media that two shale gas wells would be drilled at the Raniganj block later this year as a pilot project following which a detailed appraisal will be done.