Fact Sheet: B.C. COALBED METHANE RESOURCES

• Coalbed methane — the gas found in subsurface coal seams — promises to be a new growth area in B.C.’s oil and gas industry.
  
  
• It is almost pure methane (typically more than 95 per cent) with no hydrogen sulphide. That makes it cleaner than conventional natural gas and allows producers to send it to market with minimal processing.
  
  
• B.C.’s resource base of coalbed methane is estimated at about 90 trillion cubic feet. The economically recoverable amount is expected to be significant
  
  
• Regions of the province with good coalbed methane potential include:
  • the major coal fields of the northeast and southeast.
  • Hat Creek in the south-central Interior.
  • Vancouver Island.
  • the Princeton area.
    
    
• Coalbed methane has also been identified in:
  • Klappan-Groundhog area in the north-central Interior.
  • Telkwa in the central Interior.
  • Merritt in the south-central Interior.
  • the northwest Tuya region near Dease Lake.
  • Coalbed methane can be drilled and developed using conventional gas production technology and equipment, and transported through existing pipeline networks.
    
    
• The massive resource is currently untapped in British Columbia. Nine experimental projects — seven in the Northeast, one in the Southeast and one on Vancouver Island — are underway. Commercial production could begin within five years.
  
  
• In the U.S., coalbed methane accounts for more than seven per cent of total natural gas production. Development there began in the 1980s.

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