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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: Coal-bed Methane Overview, Southern Raton Basin, New Mexico and Colorado
By
1El Paso Production Company, Houston, TX
2Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
The Raton Basin, with an estimated 10 TCF coal-bed methane (CBM) resource base, is one of the premier, on-going plays in North America and is currently producing 200+ MMCFG/D from over 1500 wells. In 1999, El Paso Production began development on its 648,000 mineral acres in Vermejo Park Ranch, New Mexico and Colorado, Southern Raton basin. In the process, El Paso has amassed a robust geotechnical database including 47,000 feet of continuous core, 310 Platform Express/ ECS/ELAN log suites and hydrochemistry data on 400+ producing wells. In addition, El Paso is in the third and final year of a collaborative DOE-funded field, geological, engineering and laboratory study with Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, focusing on the fracture-related “plumbing” system.
Geotechnical insights into this complex CBM play, employing an
integrated, data-driven approach, suggest that the basin has
undergone a polytectonic history. The maximum horizontal
compressive stress during Laramide deformation, created by
overthrust indentation into the basin from the west, was generally
east–west as recorded by the majority of surface and subsurface
natural fracture strikes. Present-day horizontal compressive
stress measured by stress-anisotropy
logs trends north–south,
suggesting a relationship to Rio Grande extension and affecting
the design of reservoir stimulations and the placement of wells.
Local anomalous structural domains occur within this overall
pattern creating structural enhancement of production with
reservoirs containing discreet gas content, water chemistry, bottom
hole pressure gradients and production profiles. Regional and
local gas saturation variation also occurs in both lateral and
vertical dimensions with geostatistical studies showing greater
similarity in production characteristics in the east–west direction
than in the north–south direction. Coked coals, igneous sills and
gas-charged, tight sands may also serve as reservoirs, contributing
to total non-CBM gas-in-place considerations.
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