The central and northern Appalachian Basin—a frontier region for coalbed methane development

Coalbed methane resources of the Appalachian basin, eastern USA

“…The first large-scale commercial CBM production in the Appalachian basin began in the early 1980's, in the Black Warrior and Pocahontas basins. Commercial CBM production began in the Dunkard basin in northern West Virginia and Pennsylvania later in the decade (Lyons, 1998;Markowski, 1998). As of 2009, almost 10,000 wells were producing CBM in the Appalachian basin and have produced about 85 billion cubic meters (Bcm) ((3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), of methane (Black Warrior -59 Bcm (2.1 Tcf)); Pocahontas -25 Bcm (890 Bcf); Dunkard -0.4 Bcm (14 billion cubic feet (Bcf)).…”

Coalbed methane production in the Appalachian Basin

“…Most commercial CBM production in the Appalachian basin is from three structural subbasins: (1) the Dunkard basin in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and northern West Virginia; (2) the Pocahontas basin in southern West Virginia,eastern Kentucky,and southwestern Virginia;and (3) the part of the Black Warrior basin underlain by coal measures in Alabama (Lyons, 1998;Milici, 2004, which was superseded by Milici, this volume, chap. G.1).…”

Numerical Modeling and Field Monitoring of Overburden Response during Geologic Sequestration

“…The Northern Appalachian coal is believed to have the second highest underlain coal area of 43,700 square miles with an estimated methane volume of 61 trillion cubic feet, TCF (Adams et al, 1984;Byrer et al, 1987;Lyons, 1998;Rogers, 1994;White et al, 2005;Kelafant and Boyer, 1988). Development of CBM from the Pittsburgh coal seam of the northern Appalachian coal basin reportedly began in the 1930's (Byrer et al, 1987).…”

“…Development of CBM from the Pittsburgh coal seam of the northern Appalachian coal basin reportedly began in the 1930's (Byrer et al, 1987). However, the CBM sources from the Northern Appalachian coal basins have been untapped and are reported to be abundant (Lyons, 1998). In the current study, a sequestration field site located in the Northern Appalachian coal basin is selected to evaluate CBM recovery and sequestration potential.…”

“…The coal seams of the northern Appalachian basin are categorized into five stratigraphic groups -the Pottsville, the Alleghany, the Conemaugh, the Monongahela, and the Dunkard as shown in Figure 3.10 ( Kelafant and Boyer, 1988). The generalized stratigraphic sequence of the northern Appalachian coal basin was prepared based on available published sources (Kelafant and Boyer, 1988;Bruner;1995;Lyons, 1998). The coal bearing groups of the Pennsylvanian age (the Pottsville, the Alleghany, the Conemaugh and the Monongahela) are known for gas recovery.…”