Reliance now plans to drill more pilot wells in the Sohagpur East and Sohagpur West blocks.

Last week Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting that the commercial viability of these blocks had now been established, but he did not mention the size of the discoveries.

Reliance was optimistic about commercial development of these blocks by 2009/10 and was also other CBM fields in other parts of India, Ambani said.

The company was awarded the Sohagpur blocks, Sohagpur (West) and Sohagpur (East), after the first CBM licensing round in 2002. The thickness of the coal seam at Sohagpur (East) is 4-8m, while at Sohagpur (West) it is 8-18m. Gas content had been found to be between 2-14 cubic metres per tonne in both the blocks.

Analysts say the Sohagpur blocks can be compared with Australia's Bowen Basin that yields 2000-5000 cubic metres of gas per well per day. They also put the potential of CBM gas at about 1.5 times that of India's present natural gas production, which is capable of generating about 19,000 MW of electricity.