Abstract

The coalbed methane (CBM) activity in the Powder River Basin has grown dramatically since its inception in the late 1980's and has served to replace the declining volumes of the conventional gas production. The gathering / compression configurations used to move the CBM gas from the wellbore to the interstate pipelines has changed with time to promote lower wellhead pressures and, thus increased CBM well production. Transporting interstate pipelines within the Powder River Basin have been at capacity during late 1999. Three new large diameter, high pressure gathering lines have been recently installed in the Powder River Basin to provide take-away capacity necessary for the burgeoning CBM volumes. Additional interstate pipeline capacity out of the Powder River Basin is currently scheduled for service early 2000 to provide a transportation outlet to markets outside of the Powder River Basin.