The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that in order to harness Coal Bed Methane (CBM) potential in the country, the Government of India formulated a policy in 1997 wherein CBM (being natural gas) is explored and exploited under the provisions of Oil Fields (Regulation & Development) Act 1948 and Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 1959 and administered by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
CBM blocks were carved out by Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) in consultation with Ministry of Coal (MoC) and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI). Till date, 33 CBM blocks have been awarded in four rounds of CBM bidding, which covers 16,613 sq. km. (64 %) of the total available coal bearing area (26,000 sq. km.) in 12 states of India viz. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.
Total prognosticated CBM resource for 33 awarded CBM blocks is about 62.4 TCF (1767.06 BCM), of which so far, 9.9 TCF (280.36 BCM) has been established as Gas-In-Place (GIP). Current production (March 2016) is 1.637 MMSCMD from 4 CBM blocks.
Under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP), State Nodal Agencies/State Nodal Departments/Khadi and Village Industries Commission are setting up Family Type Bio-Gas Plants. Installation of biogas plants to help in generation of clean gaseous fuel (Methane Gas) for cooking and simultaneously provide enriched organic bio-manure as by product for increasing farm productivity and improving soil health.
To promote the use of Bio-gas to run vehicles, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a notification no. G.S.R. 498(E) dated 16th June, 2015 providing the standard of Bio-CNG as alternate composition of the compressed Natural Gas for use in vehicles.