In a major breakthrough in academia-industry collaboration in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), India’s largest integrated power utility NTPC Limited and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have successfully completed the drilling of India’s first well for testing the viability of geological CO₂ storage in sedimentary formations such as coal and sandstone.

The collaboration, launched under the aegis of NITI Aayog, Government of India, in November 2022, brought together NETRA – the R&D wing of NTPC, and IIT Bombay’s Department of Earth Sciences in building India’s first geological storage atlas for coalbed methane-rich coalfields. The atlas provided layer-by-layer simulation results with experimentally validated inputs for quantifying the potential for geological CO₂ storage in four major coalfields.

The drilling operations took place at Pakri Barwadih in Jharkhand on India’s eastern flank. The first well, drilled in September 2025, reached a depth of 1,200 metres to study subsurface geological characteristics. A second well was drilled in December. Both CO₂ injection and plume monitoring will be implemented at these wells.

The successful drilling marks a key milestone in India’s indigenous CCS efforts, paving the way for scalable carbon mitigation in power and industry. Project lead Prof. Vikram Vishal said the initiative marks a shift in research from laboratories to field deployment. He added that the project will provide feasibility and risk assessments for a full-scale CCS development, including a detailed storage complex analysis and a commercial development plan.

Preliminary studies indicate high geological CO2 storage potential in the North Karanpura coalfield, with the Pakri-Barwadih block showing potential to inject up to 15.5 Mt over a 10-year injection period.

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