15 CBM blocks on offer in the first bidding round in over a decade

In the first bid round in more than a decade, the government has offered 15 blocks for extracting gas from coal seams or CBM. According to a notice inviting offers issued by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the blocks are located in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. The deadline for bids in the Special CBM Bid Round-2021 is February 20, 2022. This is the first round of CBM bids in over a decade. The most recent round took place in 2010. CBM is gas or methane that can be found beneath coal seams in coal mines. It is similar to natural gas and can be used to power plants, run fertiliser units, or be used in automobiles as compressed natural gas (CNG). Madhya Pradesh has the most coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks, with five total, and Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Odisha each have two. In Chhattisgarh, three blocks are available, and one is in West Bengal. In the previous four rounds of bidding, the government awarded 29 CBM blocks. All 15 blocks are located in Category-III basins, which contain potential resources that need to be explored and discovered. Sedimentary basins in India are divided into three categories: Category I basins have reserves that are being produced and exploited, and Category II basins have contingent resources that are being developed and monetised. According to DGH, bidders who offer to do the most exploration work will be awarded the block in the current CBM round. The auction is part of the government's effort to increase domestic oil and gas production to reduce reliance on imports. India imports roughly 85% of its oil and about half of its gas requirements. In the sixth round of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), the government offered 21 conventional oil and gas blocks for bidding last month . The deadline for OALP-VI bids is October 6. In the meantime, the government has made 32 small and marginally discovered fields available. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) discovered these, but they were unable to develop them due to a variety of factors, including their uneconomical size. Under the third Discovered Small Field (DSF) round, 32 such areas are now available. These are part of the government's plan to more than double natural gas's share of the country's energy mix to 15% by 2030, up from the current 6%. GAIL (India) Limited, a state-owned gas utility, is adding 15,000 km of gas pipelines in east India to an existing network of 17,000 km to create a national grid that will connect to city gas networks. Image Source