Invenire Energy to invest $500 mn in Andhra CBM block

Oil and gas explorer Invenire Energy will invest $500 million (about Rs 41.37 billion) over the next 10 years to produce gas from coal seams (coal bed methane, or CBM) in a block in Madhya Pradesh, its chairman Manish Maheshwari said. Invenire Petrodyne Ltd (IPL), a subsidiary of the company, earlier won a CBM block, SP-ONHP(CBM)-2021/1, in auction. The block, saddled between the Chhindwara and Betul districts of Madhya Pradesh, is spread across 1,771 sq km. The revenue-sharing contract for the block, which is estimated to hold 2 trillion cubic feet of resources, was signed in September. Invenire received a production licence this month. “We plan to drill 350 wells in the first phase with a target to flow first gas in 2024,” Maheshwari said. The block is estimated to have a plateau of 3 million standard cubic metres per day of gas, which can be used to fire power plants, manufacture fertiliser or be turned into CNG to run automobiles. The government is focused on raising domestic natural gas production to help increase its share in India's primary energy basket to 15% by 2030 from current 6.7%. “The full cycle investment in CBM is likely to be of the order of USD 500 million over a 10-year period,” Maheshwari said. Plateau production is likely in the 2025-26 fiscal year. See also: ONGC to drill seven development wells in BengalHindustan Oil Exploration resumes oil production