Multi-Seam Well Completion Technology: Implications for Powder River Basin Coalbed Methane Production
A Report Produced by the DOE Strategic Center for Natural Gas, September 2003
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 (NETL) - 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.
According to the President's National Energy Policy, natural gas consumption will increase by 50 percent over the next two decades. To meet this growing demand, more natural gas will need to be recovered from domestic resources, including coalbed methane, the gas that is naturally generated in coal seams.
Coalbed methane is a significant source of domestic natural gas, according to John R. Duda of NETL's Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil. It contributes about 8 percent of our domestic gas supply, and is expected to play an increasing role in meeting our Nation's energy needs.
"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 Duda. Most of today's wells use single-seam well completion technology, in which a production well is drilled into a single coal seam to drain the gas. Multi-seam well completion technology allows gas to be extracted from multiple coal seams through a single wellbore.
"This study was basically an impact analysis," Duda added. "The Department funded the study to understand the value of multi-seam completion technology if it could be adapted and widely applied in the Powder River Basin. We found that it would increase reserves, decrease costs for the gas producer, and increase revenues. It's a win for the gas producer, the consumer, and for the Nation."
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