Potential Areas of Coal Seam Methane in India

Coal-Seam-Methane (CSM) natural gas that has evolved from and is adsorbed by coal seams is a potential source of unconventional energy World over. In India, the major part of this resource is contained in five coal-bearing areas, broadly across the eastern quadrant, This paper presents the resutts of a detailed subsurface geological analysis of the potential Gondwana coal bearing areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Bokaro, Karanpura and petroliferous basins of West Bengal for CSM exploration and exploitation.

The correlations of coal rank and depth with gas content were used along with coal volume to determine CSM in-place. More than 150 Tcf (Trillion cubic feet) of CSM has been estimated for Gondwana basins of India, of which 25 to 75% may be recovered depending on the number of seams completedin, the size of the stimulation, well spacing and pattern of alignment.