Abstract: Factors Affecting Gas Content in Coal Beds

Andrew R. Scott, W. R. Kaiser

Gas content is one of the most important controls on coalbed methane producibility because coal gas production becomes uneconomical if insufficient amounts of gas are sorbed onto the coal surface. Gas content in coal beds is not fixed but changes when equilibrium conditions within the reservoir are disrupted. Therefore, the distribution of gas content varies laterally within individual coal beds, vertically among coals within a single well, and vertically within thicker coal beds. The key hydrogeologic factors affecting gas content variability include gas generation, coal properties, and reservoir conditions.

The potential for high gas content depends on thermogenic and secondary biogenic gas generation, which are controlled by burial history (coal rank), maceral composition, and basin hydrodynamics. Coal properties such as ash and moisture content, maceral type, permeability, and diffusion coefficient affect the sorption capacity and diffusion rates in coal beds and, therefore, the final gas content. Reservoir conditions such as pressure and temperature also affect the amount of gases sorbed to the coal surface, whereas coal geometry, hydrogeology, and the presence or absence of permeability barriers determine whether or not gas contents are increased or decreased.

Stratigraphic and/or structural trapping concentrates coal gases, resulting in higher gas contents adjacent to permeability barriers; the presence of abnormally high gas contents in lower-rank coals indicates secondary biogenic gas generation and/or conventional trapping of thermogenic or biogenic gases. Gas content decreases in areas of active recharge caused by flushing or in areas of convergent flow where no trapping mechanisms (seals) are present.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90952©1996 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Billings, Montana