RIL starts gas production from coal seams

Reliance Industries today said it has begun commercial production of natural gas from coal seams or CBM from its Madhya Pradesh blocks.
The company is supplying coal bed methane (CBM) produced from the block SP(West)-CBM-2001/1 for commissioning the Shahdol-Phulpur pipeline.
"The production from RIL's Sohagpur CBM fields will gradually ramp-up in the next 15-18 months making RIL among the largest unconventional natural gas producers in India," a company statement said.
RIL, however, did not give the current production level. It is targeting 3.5 million standard cubic meters per day of peak output from two adjacent CBM blocks in Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh.

CBM is an environment-friendly natural gas extracted from coal-bed and has become an important source of unconventional gas in many parts of the world.
RIL was awarded the licence to explore two adjacent CBM blocks SP(West) and SP(East) with an area of 995 sq.Km in the Round 1 of CBM block bidding in 2001.

The company said it has drilled more than 200 wells connected to two Gas Gathering Stations in the first phase of development.
RIL expects to drill 600-800 wells further and develop associated infrastructure over the next phases of development.
Reliance Gas Pipelines Limited (RGPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, laid a 302 km Shahdol Phulpur gas pipeline that connects Sohagpur CBM fields from Shahdol to Hazira- Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline network of GAIL at Phulpur.

With this new pipeline network these CBM gas fields are now connected with the Indian Gas Grid, it added.