Test finds CBM resource at Wainwright

Provisional results from a U.S. Department of the Interior test well at the village of Wainwright on the Chukchi Sea coast indicate the existence of a significant coalbed methane resource under the village, co-project chief Art Clark announced at the Arctic Energy Summit technical conference on Oct. 16. Coal seams under a four-square-mile area at the village may contain enough coalbed methane to meet the village’s electricity generation needs for 10 to 40 years, Clark said.

Clark stressed that the DOI team has not yet completed its testing of coal samples retrieved from the well and that the Wainwright results are preliminary findings.

“But we are able to say that there is enough coalbed natural gas contained in sub-permafrost coal seams underlying Wainwright and vicinity to serve as an alternative energy source,” Clark told the conference.

Establishing the viability of coalbed methane production at Wainwright depends on designing a technically and economically viable means of extracting the gas resource, as well as conducting a multi-well production test at the village.

“Although the resource is there that’s not the same as saying it’s producible,” Clark said. Producing gas and associated water through about 1,000 feet of permafrost would present some engineering challenges, he said.

Petroleum News will publish a complete report on the Wainwright project in the Nov. 4 edition of the paper.

—Alan Bailey