Troubled by its failures in CBM (coal-bed methane) development, the state-run oil and gas major ONGC is exploring opportunities to farm-out equity interests in its four CBM assets including one in West Bengal and three in Jharkhand. The company has already received proposals in this regard from at least four players in the private sector.
The pubic sector major has so far been successful in producing very limited quantities of gas from the most prolific Jharia asset. A $200-million development programme, launched in the block in 2007, to prop up production to 3.5 lakh standard cubic metre a day yielded little result. Though large quantities of in-place reserves of CBM were also identified in Bokaro, the field is yet to be developed.
