Economic Times: Govt Mulls New Pricing Formula for Coal-bed Methane

The government is looking at a new pricing regime for coal-bed methane (CBM) to help monetise the clean energy source lying below coal seams, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today. 

Producing gas trapped below coal seams (CBM) considered uneconomical at current gas price of USD 4.24 per million British thermal unit considering that such an exploitation requires a huge number of well to be drilled and per well output is very low. 

"A pricing mechanism needs to be looked at (for boosting CBM production)," he said at a seminar on CBM here. 

India has prognosticated CBM resource of 63 trillion cubic feet, of which 10 Tcf has been established. "After 20 years, CBM production is only 1 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), constituting only 1 per cent of total natural gas production," Oil Secretary K D Tripathi said.  MORE