The Hindu Business Line : Mine methane recovery: Fourteen companies express interest

Kolkata, Aug. 31 A total of 14 companies, including six from abroad, have expressed interest in recovery of methane from existing and abandoned mines under Coal India Ltd. According to sources, among the prominent names in the fray are: Reliance, ONGC, Essar and Arrow Energy of Australia.

Also in the race is Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd, which has recently produced the first commercial coal bed methane (CBM) in the country.

ONGC, Reliance and Essar have existing interests in CBM exploration in India. Arrow is focussed on recovery of underground methane and is currently operating three CBM exploration blocks in India.

Pre-bid conference

Foreign majors having proven expertise in underground methane recovery like British Petroleum and Shell, however, stayed away from the CIL initiative.

The public sector coal major is now headed for organising a pre-bid conference with the interested parties. This will be followed by appointment of consultant for preparing the detailed bid document before floating a global tender for recovery of coal mine methane (CMM) and abandoned mine methane (AMM).

According to sources in CIL, the other Indian companies which have expressed interest in CMM-AMM recovery are Hiland Overseas, Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) Total CBM solutions and Ispat Energy Ltd (IEL) a group outfit of Ispat Industries. Both JSPL and Ispat Industries have presence in steel and power generation.

Other companies

Apart from Arrow, two other Australian companies, including Mitchell Drilling and ACS Laboratories are in the fray. While the companies have a range of technical solutions Mitchell Drilling has existing operations in drilling services in India. The company has expertise in CBM, directional drilling and handles turnkey projects in oil and gas sector.

This apart, there are companies like Green Gas International and Carbon Capital both from the UK and CMM energy from USA focussed on methane recovery from mines.

Earlier this year, CIL invited expression of interests for recovery of CMM and AMM from the coalfields of Jharkhand and Bengal under three different CIL subsidiaries (ECL, BCCL and CCL).

The project is aimed at making the future mining activity safe and preventing release of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — directly to the atmosphere. The project may also help the coal companies in securing carbon credits.