ABSTRACT

Alberta contains at least 6000 gigatonnes (6 10¹² tonnes) of coal ranging in rank from sub-bituminous to low-volatile bituminous. Our calculations show the amount of coal bed gas potentially in place is in the order of 73.5 10¹² cubic metres (2.6 10¹⁵ cubic feet). This is an enormous resource, and the numbers are being updated continuously as new data become available. Estimates of the maximum coal gas-in-place for the United States are approximately 4 10¹⁴ cubic feet.

In the Alberta portion of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin the coals are distributed throughout the Foothills and Plains regions and range from Jurassic to Tertiary in age. The potential of these coals for generating sufficient gas to be considered a significant commercial fuel source has only been realized in the last several years.

Because of the relative infancy of this resource development in Alberta, only limited direct data are available. The coals in Alberta have not been extensively tested for gas content, however, the evaluation of coal bed methane resources are possible through the use of indirect data such as thickness, rank, depth, as well as proximate analysis to obtain an estimate of the gas content.

This paper reviews the formations and geographic areas of gas potential and the reasoning used to derive the coal and gas content resource estimates.

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