DOE report touts multi-seam coalbed methane completion

A newly released study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy says that widespread, successful application of a drilling and completion strategy called “multi-seam well completion technology” would dramatically increase the amount of natural gas that could be economically recovered from coal seams in the Powder River basin of Wyoming and Montana.

The report — prepared by Advanced Resources International for the National Energy Technology Laboratory — estimates that the technology could increase natural gas production in the basin by up to 88 percent, boosting state and federal revenues by up to $7.7 billion.

“More than 14,000 gas wells have already been drilled in the Powder River basin to produce coalbed methane, and there is the potential for drilling a total of more than 50,000,” said John Duda of DOE’s Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil.

Most of today’s wells use single-seam well completion technology. Multi-seam well completion technology allows gas to be extracted from multiple coal seams through a single wellbore.

Duda said the study found that if multi-seam completion could be widely applied in the Powder River basin “it would increase reserves, decrease costs for the gas producer and increase revenues.”