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Ready for drill
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Calcutta, March 4: Essar Oil today said the Union environment and forest ministry had given phase III clearance to the company’s coal bed methane (CBM) gasfield in Raniganj, Bengal.
A phase III clearance is given after a rigorous assessment of the environment impact of a project.
This will enable the company to drill 650 wells instead of 135. The company, which had recently faced opposition from land losers in Jatgeria, Bengal, over compensation issues, said it would ensure its presence in the area had a positive impact on the environment. Essar said it would help in community development by contributing to the improvement in education, health and medical conditions.
Iftikhar Nasir, CEO of exploration and production business of Essar Energy, today said in a conference call, “We will drill 200 wells in the coming financial year and will invest Rs 2,500 crore for this. This will be invested not just to add wells but also to develop the infrastructure and water management systems. The future plan is drilling 20 wells a month.”
Essar has eight oil and gas blocks, of which five are CBM blocks with reserves of more than 10 trillion cubic feet. The five blocks are located in Rajmahal (Jharkhand), Raniganj (Bengal), Sohagpur (parts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh), Talcher and IB Valley (Odisha).
In a statement issued today, the company said the environmental clearance would allow the company to fully develop the Raniganj block, excluding the forest area. This will help Essar Oil to ramp up production to 3 million metric standard cubic metres of gas per day (mmscmd) from around 60,000 mmscmd. So far, 135 wells have been drilled in Raniganj, of which 57 are in production.
“We are currently managing our production profile rather than having a large production profile early. We want the market to develop. We do not want to commit beyond what we can tangibly provide,” Nasir said.
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