Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production on Monday reported a net profit of Rs 335 crore in the financial year ended March 31, helped by reduced operating costs and higher prices. It reported a Rs 212 crore in net profit a year ago.

The company plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the next 18 to 24 months for drilling 200 more wells in the Raniganj block.

The unconventional hydrocarbon producer reported its highest revenues in a year of Rs 900 crore in FY2023, a growth of about 1.8 times compared with the previous year.

EOGEPL currently produces two-thirds of India’s gas output from coal seams called coal bed methane (CBM).

It plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the next 18 to 24 months for drilling 200 more wells, which will help swell output. It produced 0.84 million standard cubic metres per day of CBM.

The company strives to contribute 5 per cent to India’s total gas production in the next five years.

The Raniganj block is the highest producer of CBM to date and the only CBM project in India to produce over 82 billion cubic feet of CBM gas to date.

Prashant Ruia, director, Essar Capital and EOGEPL, said, “The company aims to participate in India’s mission of reducing carbon footprint and becoming a gas-based economy by the next decade. EOGEPL aims to provide industries in its vicinity with alternative clean fuel at economical prices by ramping up its gas production at the cheapest cost.”