Natural Gas from Coal In Eastern Kansas

Oil & Natural Gas / Coalbed Methane / Exploration

Date posted: 11/05/09

Coalbed methane is natural gas that occurs in coal beds. The geological process that turns plant material into coal generates methane gas. This gas was a deadly nuisance that produced explosions in underground coal mines, so the mines had to be ventilated to remove the gas. In the early 1980's, the mining industry began to capture and sell this gas rather than release it to the atmosphere. Thus, a new industry was createdthe commercial production of methane from subsurface coal beds. In Kansas, most of the activity has been in the southeastern part of the state, primarily Montgomery, Wilson, western Labette, and eastern Chautauqua counties; however, other parts of eastern Kansas that are underlain by coal beds also have potential for coalbed methane production (fig. 1). Coal beds that have potential to produce methane occur in eastern Kansas east of the Nemaha uplift, a subsurface geologic structure that runs from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, north through El Dorado, Kansas, and just east of Manhattan, Kansas.