(ET)
India’s production of Coal Bed Methane (CBM), a clean energy source extracted from coal seams, grew more than 44 percent last financial year to around 565 million standard cubic metres (MMSCM) as compared to 393 MMSCM in 2015-2016. This comes as a major boost for the government’s efforts to cut down India’s import dependence for energy supply.
The huge growth in CBM output in 2016-17 was, however, lower than the government’s projections. India’s upstream regulator DGH had last year informed a parliamentary panel India’s CBM production was pegged to quadruple to 1,449 MMSCM at the end of 2016-2017.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan had last year said in a tweet coal bed methane is likely to contribute to five percent of natural gas production by 2017. Data published by petroleum planning and analysis cell (PPAC) shows that in 2016-2017 domestic production of CBM contributed to 1.78 percent of India’s total natural gas production of over 31,000 MMSCM.
In a bid to incentivize production, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had last month approved a new policy allowing marketing and pricing freedom for CBM gas. The new policy allows contractors to sell CBM at arm’s length price in the domestic market. “The contractor, while discovering the market price for arm’s length sales, has to ensure a fully transparent and competitive process for sale of CBM with the objective that the best possible price is realized for the gas without any restrictive commercial practices,” said an official statement.
