Preliminary resource assessment of coalbed methane in the United States

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6260360

Preliminary results of the DOE Methane Recovery from Coalbeds Project reveal that many of the coal regions in the United States have significant volumes of coalbed methane. These results show that 45 cooperative wells drilled to date have helped to update the estimates of methane in the various coal regions. The most promising coal region is in the Green River Basin where preliminary estimates show that the methane potential may be over 23 trillion cubic feet. Another area of considerable interest is in the Arkoma Basin where the methane content of coal samples ranged from 200 to 400 cubic feet per ton (cf/ton) of coal. The methane estimte in this basin is between 1.6 to 3.6 trillion cubic feet. The Piceance Creek coal region is an area presently generating considerable interest and industry activity. The methane content of the coal samples extracted from this basin averaged over 100 cf/ton. The Northern Appalachian region also shows considerable promise.

• Research Organization: Department of Energy, Morgantown, WV (USA). Morgantown Energy Technology Center
• OSTI ID: 6260360
• Report Number(s): DOE/METC/SP-186; ON: DE82001356
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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03 NATURAL GAS
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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
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ALKANES
APPALACHIA
COAL DEPOSITS
COAL SEAMS
COLORADO
DEGASSING
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HYDROCARBONS
METHANE
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
OKLAHOMA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
RECOVERY
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
RESOURCES
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
SOUTHWEST REGION
USA
WYOMING