Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Limited (EOGEPL) plans a threefold growth in capital expenditure to Rs 1,500 crore for 2024-25 (FY25) to achieve volume growth of 35 percent in the year, CEO Pankaj Kalra told Moneycontrol in an interview.

The Essar group’s E&P or exploration and production company, which primarily looks at coal bed methane (CBM) gas production, had spent Rs 500 crore in the financial year gone by.

“We have already started our Rs 2,000-crore capex cycle and have invested around Rs 500 crore in the last year and the plan is to work with more effort and energy. We will continue to invest over the next one and a half years and the balance Rs 1,500 crore will get invested,” said Kalra. The company’s head added that the capex would be financed through internal accruals.

EOGEPL focuses on unconventional hydrocarbons, and currently produces 65 percent of India’s total CBM output. The company contributes around 1 percent of the total gas production in the country.