Coalbed Gas Potential in the Pittsburgh-Huntington Synclinorium, Northern West Virginia

PATCHEN, D.G., J. F. SCHWIETERING, T.E. REPINE, and K. L. AVARY, West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Morgantown, WV

The West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) received a subcontract from the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology to conduct a geologic evaluation of critical production parameters for coalbed methane resources in the northern Appalachian coal basin. The study area is a northeast-southwest-trending ellipse that coincides with the axis of the Pittsburgh-Huntington Synclinorium in north central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. Coalbed gas resources there have been estimated to be 61 bcf in previous work funded by the Gas Research Institute. Data used in that study were mainly core descriptions and drillers logs from coal exploration cores. The current research will integrate data from the WVGES' coal, oil and gas, and ground water databases to more carefully determin the number and thicknesses of coals below the Pittsburgh, and their hydrologic setting. Main objectives are to determine: the number of coals present; the geographic and stratigraphic positions of the thickest coals; locations of depocenters with stacked coals; the pressure regime of the area and geologic factors contributing to it; ground-water circulation patterns; and the presence of any potentiometric anomalies. Local and regional stratigraphic and structural cross sections and lithofacies and coal occurrence maps will be made for the coal-bearing interval below the Pittsburgh coal to show the distribution, structural attitude, and depositional systems. Regional and local control of structural elements, including fractures, on gas producibility from coalbeds will be determined. Gas nd water production data will be collected from two small areas of current production and mapped and compared to maps of geologic parameters. The goal is to measure the effect on production of geologic parameters in these coalbed gas fields, and determine the locations of other "sweet spots" in these coalbeds.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91004 © 1991 AAPG Annual Convention Dallas, Texas, April 7-10, 1991 (2009)