More information is being made available on coalbed methane resources in eastern Canada.
Geological Survey of Canada researchers have estimated that a coalbed methane resource of 83.9 tcf exists in coal measures that lie beneath Prince Edward Island and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in eastern Canada.
COAL GAS RESOURCES
GSC published the Prince Edward Island resource estimate as current research paper 92-1E, by A.C. Grant and P.N. Moir, Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Dartmouth, N.S.
Conservative assumptions yield a methane volume that prompts consideration of whether the resource can be exploited, the authors wrote.
Prospective land areas include Brion, Mabou-Inverness, and Prince Edward islands, where the coal lies at depths from which coalbed methane is being exploited in U.S. basins.
Coal depths are 1-5 km on Prince Edward Island. Wells in the U.S. have been drilled 2-3 km for coal gas, although few go deeper than 1-1.5 km.
Available data do not address favorability of structure, coal fracture permeability, permeability of adjacent strata, water content, or pressure stress relationships.
COAL GAS DATA
Some 19 exploratory wells for oil and gas have intersected the coal measures, which coincide with a seismic horizon mappable across about 66,000 sq km of the Sydney and Gulf of St. Lawrence basins.
Measurements of coal rank for several wells are in the range favorable for generation of coalbed methane but it remains to consider whether rank, thickness, and depth of the coal beds are such that drilling and testing may be warranted, the authors wrote.
Land and offshore data support the probability that at least one 3 m thick seam persists across the area of coal measures mapped beneath Prince Edward Island and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, an area of about 42,000 sq km. The authors estimated the coalbed methane resource in this area at 76.3 tcf.
Another mapped area of coal measures between central and eastern Prince Edward Island covers about 4,200 sq km with an estimated resource of 7.6 tcf.
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