U.S. Geological Survey
USGS BACK
Page 1
Index Page Geology Search USGS

National Assessment of Oil and Gas Fact Sheet

Coal-Bed Gas Resources of the Rocky Mountain Region

Figure 2. Diagram illustrating the production of water (blue) and gas (white) from a coal bed (black) in a typical coal-bed methane well. Other rock types are shown in yellow. Coal-bed gas and water are separated at the surface.

Figure 2. Diagram illustrating the production of water (blue) and gas (white) from a coal bed (black) in a typical coal-bed methane well. Other rock types are shown in yellow. Coal-bed gas and water are separated at the surface.


Table 1. Coal-bed gas resources of selected Rocky Mountain provinces. The year signifies the date of the latest USGS assessment of each province.
[TCFG, trillion cubic feet of gas. F95 represents a 95 percent chance of at least the amount of resource tabulated; F5 represents a 5 percent chance of at least the amount of resource tabulated]
Province

Coal-Bed Gas (TCFG)
F95
F5
Mean
Uinta-Piceance (2002)
1.16
4.07
2.32
San Juan (2002)
20.65
28.47
24.24
Powder River (2002)
8.24
22.42
14.26
Wind River (1995)
0.22
0.72
0.43
SW. Wyoming (2002)
0.80
2.60
1.53
Raton Basin (1995)
1.39
2.23
1.78
Total
32.46
60.51
44.56
reassessed most recently in 2002. In the six geologic provinces assessed for this study, the assessment at present indicates that about 44.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of technically recoverable coal-bed gas (mean estimate) exists (table 1). The Powder River Basin is estimated to contain nearly one third (14.2 TCF at the mean) of the undiscovered coal-bed gas resource. The San Juan Basin, where coal-bed gas has been produced for 20 years, is estimated to contain about 54% (24.2 TCF) of undiscovered coal-bed gas at the mean. In a national perspec-tive, coal-bed gas production accounts for about 1.3 TCFG of the 18.5 TCFG of total natural gas produced annually in the U.S. Although the production of coal-bed gas is minor compared to natural gas produc-tion from conventional oil and gas fields, coal-bed gas production is important regionally, as in provinces of the Rocky Mountain region. Assessment results can be found at http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga
Summary
A significant portion of the undiscovered coal-bed gas resource of the U.S. occurs in Rocky Mountain provinces. If the demand for natural gas increases significantly through the next few decades, as expected, coal-bed gas will continue to be an important regional source of natural gas.
References Cited

Gautier, D.L., Dolton, G.L., Takahashi, K.I., and Varnes, K.L., 1996, 1995 National assessment of United States oil and gas resources—Results, methodology, and supporting data: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-30, Version 2, one CD-ROM.

U.S. Geological Survey National Oil and Gas Resource Assessment Team, 1995, 1995 National assessment of United States oil and gas resources: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1118, 20 p.

For More Information on Coal-Bed Methane:
National Assessmentof Oil and Gas Project
C.J.Schenk (schenk@usgs.gov)
U.S. coal-bed gas resources
V.F.Nuccio (vnuccio@usgs.gov)
Powder River Basin, Raton Basin
R.M.Flores (rflores@usgs.gov)
Wind River Basin, SW Wyoming, Uinta-Piceance Basin
R.C.Johnson (rcjohnson@usgs.gov)
S.B.Roberts (sroberts@usgs.gov)
T.M.Finn (finn@usgs.gov)
San Juan Basin
J.Ridgley (ridgley@usgs.gov)
USGS BACK
Page 1
Index Page Geology Search USGS
USA.gov logo