Privately owned Essar Oil & Gas Ltd has secured five coal bed methane (CBM) blocks under the government’s bidding rounds of 2025 and 2026, adding 1,281 sq km of acreage across West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

The blocks hold an estimated 6.6 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas-in-place resources, strengthening the company’s presence in India’s unconventional gas sector.

Essar has secured two blocks each in West Bengal’s Raniganj and Telangana’s Godavari Valley, and one in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli.

The company already holds around 500 sq km of acreage in West Bengal’s Raniganj, with the two newly awarded blocks adding another 330 sq km.

CBM is an unconventional source of natural gas trapped within coal seams, unlike conventional gas, which accumulates in the pore spaces of reservoir rocks.

Announcing the signing of the contracts, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said India has an estimated CBM resource base of 2,600 billion cubic metres (BCM), with “significant potential to boost domestic production”.

Pankaj Kalra, CEO of Essar Oil & Gas Ltd, said: “... Building on our proven track record at Raniganj, we see substantial opportunities to leverage our technical expertise, operational capabilities and established infrastructure to accelerate the development of these resources.”