New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) Monday announced it would begin its pilot production of coalbed methane (CBM) gas in Jharkhand from December.

The pilot productions will start in Parbatpur areas of Jharia block, a company statement said.

The peak commercial production would be reached in 2011 with 400,000 cubic metres per day for the next 10 years.

This announcement was made by ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma during his visit to Bokaro Saturday.

Sharma had gone to oversee the on-going hi-tech horizontal multilateral well drilling at the Parbatpur site.

He said ONGC has already invested Rs.3 billion in the CBM project, with another Rs.15 billion lined up till 2011.

ONGC director (exploration) D.K. Pande said there was an estimated CBM resource of 240 billion cubic metres in Jharkhand.

Highlighting that "ONGC is not looking at commercial aspects at present", Sharma appealed to the media to communicate the significance of CBM operations in the broader energy context of the nation and also to solve the local energy and economic requirements of Jharkhand.