The Raton Mesa coal region, a north-south-trending basin occupying 2,200 sq mi in southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, contains an in-place coal reserve of more than 17 billion tons. Of this reserve, more than 3 billion tons are coking coal. Test data from methane desorption show these coals contain between 25 and 490 cu ft of gas per ton of coal. When used with the coal resource estimate, a potential of at least 8.0 and possibly as much as 18.4 trillion cu ft of coalbed methane may be present in the Raton Mesa Region.

An initial target area for exploitation of this resource covers a vast majority of the basin. However, an area of about 310 sq mi in the western part of the basin has been identified as having the highest potential for development. Coals in this area are generally higher in rank and found at greater depths. Desorption data for coal cores from this area average about 250 cu ft of gas per ton of coal (288 MMcf/ton coal per sq mi).