Essar Oil's India CBM Output Touches 1 Mscmd

Essar Oil said CBM output at its Raniganj block in the state of West Bengal has touched 1 million scmd.

Talking to Economic Times, head of exploration and production business Manish Maheshwari said the company now aims to scale it up to 3 million scmd by mid-2017-18. Essar is the firm company in India to achieve the milestone of attaining output level of 1 million scmd.

"By end of the current financial year we would be producing 2 million scmd and by middle of 2017-18 we should be at 3 million scmd. We only need to make some incremental investment for drilling because the infrastructure that we have created is capable of handling 3 million scmd," said Maheshwari.

Earlier this month, Greka Drilling said it has drilled two wells for Essar Oil in Raniganj block as per the contract signed earlier this year. The first well was spudded on May 8 and the drilling of a second well was completed by the same GD75 rig on June 5, with a total of 2,439 meters drilled over the course of 28 days.

Greka and Essar signed the contract in January this year. Essar had previously engaged Greka Drilling in late 2013 to provide drilling services on Raniganj East block and this contract was concluded in 2015 with a total of 16 wells being drilled.  The current contract is for a period of one year and has an estimated value of around $8 million.

The company will drill a third well under the contract, which is expected to spud shortly, Greka said.

A second GD75 rig is in the process of being prepared for mobilisation under the same contract to help meet Essar's drilling needs in the Raniganj block.