Coal Bed Methane

Coal Bed Methane (CBM) or coal gas, is to conventional gas what heavy oil is to light oil, in other words CBM is the largest remaining gas resource available in the world today.

• CBM is called an unconventional gas because the coal acts as both the source of the gas and the storage reservoir.
• Most of the CBM is attached to or "adsorbed" on the coal surfaces and it may also be trapped in the coal fractures, which tend to have low permeability.
• CBM is extracted by drilling a well into a coal seam using similar techniques used for other gas wells.
• The coal seams are often stimulated or "fractured" to make the CBM flow more freely.
• Wells are completed with slotted liner to control the particles and also allow the gas to flow through into the well bore and up the casing to the surface.
• Multilateral wells, completed with slotted liner, are used to maximize pay zone contact.

Alberta contains two types of coal bed methane reserves, dry coal as found primarily in the Horseshoe Canyon area, and wet coal as found in places like the Swan Hills and Coronation areas. Currently producers are only using horizontal wells with slotted liner in the areas that contain wet coal, the reason is the fact that the reservoir needs to be de-watered before there is any significant gas production. Many of these horizontal wells extend over 1000m in horizontal length in order to gain maximum reservoir contact. Recent testing has indicated that producers may want to use horizontal wells in dry coal for the same reason of trying to achieve maximum reservoir contact.

Coal Bed Methane is truly the next wave in unconventional resource production, Regent is at the forefront, as with heavy oil, in implementing technologies to develop this immense resource as economically as possible.