The companies will investigate the opportunities for joint development of underground coal gasification in Singareni coal areas within the Godavari Valley coal fields.

Singareni Collieries has mines in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and is jointly owned by the State and Indian governments.

The agreement was made following the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate’s Coal Mining Taskforce workshop on underground coal gasification (UCG) in Kolkata last week.

In opening the UCG workshop, Indian Coal Minister Shri Shibu Soren said coal deposits which cannot be mined by conventional methods can be utilised to produce energy with UCG technology.

“This technology, when successfully implemented, will not only provide clean energy but will also help in reducing the gas and oil import bill of the country,” Soren said.

Carbon Energy and Singareni will evaluate UCG prospects throughout the Godavari Valley, and have commenced investigating coal reserves down existing opencut and underground mines in the area.

A deep underground coal resource has been identified in this region over an area of 30 square kilometres at 500m drillhole spacing.

The potential for conventional mining is limited by high temperature mineral waters in the area.

Local energy markets for UCG syngas include power stations and ceramic, cement and chemical works.