Panel 2 of 2

US COALBED METHANE

The Past: Production

The Present: Reserves

The Future: Resources

Annual coalbed methane gas production data through 12/31/2006 was obtained

from 17 state oil & gas regulatory entities or geological surveys and one producing

company. Data for 2006 were not yet available for West Virginia and Pennsy lvania

so the 2005 volumes were assumed to repeat in 2006. Produced CBM gas volumes

from each state were clas sified by basin.

The cumulative production pie chart to the left shows the sum of all reported CBM

gas volumes by basin through 2006. The San Juan Bas in dominates the chart.

The only other bas in to ex ceed 10% is the Pow der River Basin (12%). Relative

cumulative production volumes by basin are spatially depicted in the choropleth

map at the top right.

The CBM bas ins have been subdivided into four tiers based on their 2006 annual

production volumes, as shown in the four graphs below the pie chart and map. This

permits clear visualization of the production trends of the smaller volume bas ins.

Note the s ignificant vertical (volumetric) scale differences among the four graphs.

Total annual CBM production volumes from 1980 (the first separately reported CBM

volumes ) to 2006 for all 17 bas ins are show n as a dotted black line on the first graph

to the left. The three CBM basins which produce between 115 and 1,000 billion

cubic feet of CBM gas per year (BCF/year) (San Juan, Pow der River, and Blac k

Warrior) are c lassed as Tier 1 basins and are individually shown. Fourteen other

(smaller) basins are combined and shown as the purple line. The most obvious

trends are (1) the dominance of the San Juan Basin since the late 1980's and

beginning a slight decline in 2000; and (2) the rapid increase of the Pow der River

Basin beginning in the late 1990's.

Tier 2 (30-115 BCF/year) is comprised of the Raton, Uinta, Central Appalachian,

Arkoma, and Cherokee basins. The second graph on the left reveals that production

is still increasing in all of them except the Uinta Basin. The dashed black line

indicates total production of the Tier 2 basins.

The graph for the Tier 3 basins (0.5 - 5 BCF/year, top one on right) looks more

"spiky" than those of the first two tiers owing to expansion of the vertical scale.

This graph contras ts growing produc tion in the Wind River, Northern

Appalachian, and Greater Green R iver basins with declining production in

the Gulf Coas t Bas in and nearly flat production in the Piceance Basin.

The fourth graph (bottom one on right) displays the four smallest CBM production

basins which comprise Tier 4 (<10 million cubic feet of CBM gas/year (MMCF/year)).

Three of them have dec lined to zero production (Hanna-Carbon, Alaska-Susitna,

and Wyoming Thrust Belt). Only the Illinois Basin is on the rise and those volumes

represent only one operator in one field (BPI, Saline C ounty Coal Gas Field).

Note that these production volumes came from the individual state oil and gas

regulatory agencies (and BPI) and are therefore slightly different from the CBM

production volumes EIA has collected annually s ince 1989 on its Form EIA-23

Proved reserves are the quantities of gas that geologic and engineering data

demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from

known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.

The CBM proved reserves data are from the EIA's U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas ,

and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves , 2006 Annual R eport. Illinois Basin,

Wind River Basin and Forest City Basin reserves are not shown to protect the

confidentiality of operators' estimates , and Piceance and Gulf Coas t Bas in

reserves are not shown due to inadequate reporting.

The pie chart at left shows the division of CBM proved reserves by basin in

2005. The San Juan Basin dominates the chart with just less than half (43%)

of the total proved reserves . Four other bas ins exceed 10% of the resererves total:

Raton (14%), Powder River (12%), Blac k Warrior (11%) and Central Appalachian

(10%).

Relative CBM proved reserves by bas in are spatially depicted in the choropleth

map at the right.

Recoverable resource estimates of coalbed natural gas are those volumes

which are potentially recoverable under existing and foreseen technological

conditions. They have not yet been discovered or developed, and do not include

proved reserves or cumulative production.

These CBM resource es timates are from Potential Supply of Natural Gas in

the United States , Report of the Potential Gas Committee (PGC), 12/31/2006

(www.mines.edu/research/pga/index .html). The committee is comprised of

volunteer experts from the gas indus try, government, and academia.

The displayed volumes are the sums by basin of the estimated most likely

(modal) volumes of Probable plus Pos sible plus Speculative resources. It

would be preferable to sum the estimated mean values rather than the

estimated modal values, but the former are not prov ided for CBM. The relative

portion of each bas in's resource potential within the United States is shown on

the pie chart to the left. Note that some of the PGC basins were aggregated to

reduce the number of pie slices . Units for the resource estimates are trillion cubic

feet (TCF) of CBM gas.

The mature San Juan Basin represents only 5% of the resource total. Alaska

dominates the graph with 35%, but note that Alaska is comprised of multiple

basins aggregated together whereas most of the Lower 48 States basins

are not aggregated. Given their relatively small areas, the Raton, Hanna-Carbon,

Pacific, and Wind River bas ins have a relatively high resource volume.

The relative resource estimates are spatially depicted in the choropleth map at

bottom right.

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

CBM PRODUCTION DATA SOURCES (if no name is listed, then source is website):

AK Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (S. Davies),

AK Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (J. Clough)

AL State Oil & Gas Board, Geological Survey ofAL (J.Pashin)

AR Oil & Gas Commission

CO Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

IL: BPI Energy, Inc.(K. Lite)

IN: No data available

KS Geological Survey (T. Carr)

KY Geological Survey (B. Nuttal)

LA Dept of Natural Resources, US Geological Survey (P. Warwick)

MT Board of Oil & Gas Conservation

NM: GO-TECH (M. Cather)

OH Division of Geological Survey (J. McDonald)

OK Geological Survey (B. Cardott)

PA Bureau of Topographic & Geological Survey (T. Markowski)

TX Railroad Commission

UT Division of Oil, Gas & Mining

VA Dept. of Mines, Minerals & Energy

WV Geological & Economic Survey (L. Avary)

WY Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

November 2007

Comments or questions to EIA

Reserves & Production Division:

Bob King (robert.king@eia.doe.gov)

Gary Long (gary.long@eia.doe.gov)

Gulf

Coast

Illinois

Forest

U City inta

Cherokee

Northern

Appalachian

Powder

River

San Juan

Central

Appalachian

Greater

Green

River

Arkoma

Piceance

Black

Warrior

Raton

Wind

River

Hannah-Carbon

Wyoming

Overthrust

1

20

18

772

174

2,314

758

41

1

13,147

243

1,893

625

0 100 200 400

Miles

US Coalbed Methane Cumulative Production (BCF)

By Basin To 12/31/06

 ̄

Notes: 2006 CBM production from PA and WV not yet

available; assumed to be equal to 2005 volumes for this

study. Forest City Basin production is entirely in KS,

volumes not separated from Cherokee portion of KS but

are only from <3% of KS wells. OK volumes do not

include CBM+ conventional comingled completions.

< 1

< 1

Cumulative CBM Production

By Basin, 1980 -2006 (BCF)

0

< 1

1 - 10

10 - 100

100 - 500

500 - 1,000

1,000 - 5,000

> 5,000

Data sources: Production from

State Oil & Gas Commissions

and State Geological Surveys.

Basins from USGS (Tully).

Projection: Albers NAD 27

< 1

Susitna

Alaska

< 1

0 200 400

Miles

Cumulative US Coalbed Methane Production (BCF)

By Basin to 12-31-06

Black

Warrior

9%

Cent.

Appal.

4%

Powder River

12%

Uinta

4% Raton

3%

11 Small Basins

2%

San Juan

66%

Total Cumulative CBM Production = 20,006 BCF Gas

13,147

497

2,314

1,893

772 758

625

Arkoma 243

Cherokee 174

Piceance 41

N. Appalachian 20

Grtr Green River 18

Wind RIver 1

Gulf Coast 1

Hannah-Carbon <1

WY Thrust Belt <1

Alaska <1

Illinois <1

11 Small Basins

and reported in its U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas , and Natural Gas Liquids Annual

Report. The graph below compares these production volume sources.

US Coalbed Methane Annual Production By Basin

Tier 1 CBM Basins: 115- 1,000 BCF/Year

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

CBM Gas/

Year (BCF )

San Juan

Black Warrior

Powder River

14 Smaller Basins

All 17 CBM Basins

US Coalbed Methane Annual Production By Basin

Tier 2 CBM Basins: 30-114 BCF/Year

0

100

200

300

400

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

CBM Gas/

Year (BCF )

Cent. Appalachian

Uinta

Raton

Arkoma

Cherokee

TOTAL 5 Basins

US Coalbed Methane Annual Production By Basin

Tier 3 Basins: 0.5 - 5 BCF/ Year

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1980 1982 1984 1986 1989 1991 1993 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

CBM Gas/

Year (BCF)

Piceance

N. Appalachian

Grtr Green River

Wind River

Gulf Coast

TOTAL 5 basins

Coalbed Methane Annual Production By Basin

Tier 4 Basins: < 10 MMCF/ year

0

0.002

0.004

0.006

0.008

0.01

1980 1982 1984 1986 1989 1991 1993 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

CBM Gas/

Year (BCF)

Hanna-Carbon

WY Thrust

Alaska (Susitna)

Illinois

TOTAL 4 Basins

Pacific

3.4

6.1

0.5

7.6

2.5 10.6

2.8

1.2

2.4

18.5

5.5

0.01

5.8

8.4

4.4

0.3

1.8

0.8

2.5

0.2

4.2

2.7

6.1

2.6

Gulf

Coast

Forest

City

Illinois

Northern

Appalachian

Williston

Cherokee

Greater

Green

River

Powder

River

Central

Appalachian

Uinta + Piceance

+ Park

San

Juan Arkoma

Southwestern

Coal Region

North

Central

Michigan

Denver

Black

Warrior

Big

Wind Horn

River

Kaiparowits +

Black Mesa

Henry Mtns +

SW Colorado

Raton

Hanna-Carbon

57

0 200 400

Miles 0 100 200 400

Miles

US Coalbed Methane Resources (TCF)

By Basin, December 2006

CBM Resources (TCF)

0

0.1 - 1

1.1 - 4

4.1 - 7

7.1 - 15

15.1 - 30

> 30

Data Sources:

Sum of probable, possible and speculative most likely

estimates from Potential Gas Committee, 12/31/2006

Coal Basins from USGS (Tully) & Alaska DNR

Projection: Albers NAD27

 ̄

Alaska

US Coalbed Methane Resources (TCF)

Potential Gas Committee, 2006

Forest City

4%

Southwestern

4%

4-S. Rockies Basins

3%

Uinta-Piceance

- Park

3%

4-N. Rockies

Basins

3%

Cherokee

+ Arkoma

3%

Raton

3%

Illinois

5%

Gulf Coast

2%

Hannah-Carbon

4%

San Juan

5%

AppalachianBlack WarriorMichigan

11%

Powder River

11%

Alaska

35% Pacific

2%

4 S. Rockies Basins

Henry Mtns-SW Colorado 2.7

Greater Green River 2.5

Denver 0.3

Black Mesa- Kaiparowits 0.2

4 N. Rockies Basins

Wind River 2.5

North Central 1.2

Big Horn 0.8

Williston 0.5

Total CBM Resources = 157.9 TCF Gas

57

18.5 17.3

8.4

2.6 3.4 7.6 4.3 4.6 5 5.5

5.7

5.8

6.1

6.1

US Coal Bed Methane Proved Reserves (BCF)

EIA-23, 2006

San Juan

43.0%

Powder

River

12.3% Raton

14.2%

Central

Appalachian

10.1%

Black

Warrior

10.5%

Uinta

3.8%

Northern

Appalachian

0.3%

5 Small Basins

0.3%

Arkoma

2.9%

Greater

Green

River

0.4%

Cherokee

1.9%

Total CBM Reserves = 19.6 TCF Gas

5 Small Basins

Wind River

Illinois

Piceance

Gulf Coast

Forest City

8446

2786

2418

2068

1995

750 577

374

78 64

63

Gulf

Coast

Illinois

Forest

City

Uinta

Cherokee

Northern

Appalachian

Powder

River

San

Juan

Central

Appalachian

Greater

Green

River

Arkoma

Piceance

Black

Warrior

Raton

Wind River

64

78

374

2,418

1,995

750

8,446

2,068

577

2,786

 ̄

CBM Proved Reserves by Basin (BCF)

0

0.1 - 1

1.1 - 50

50.1 - 500

500.1 - 1000

1000.1 - 2000

2000.1 - 3000

> 3000

0 100 200 400

Miles

US Coalbed Methane Proved Reserves (BCF)

By Basin, 2006 Data Sources:

Proved reserves from EIA-23 (2006).

Reserve values for Illinois, Wind River and

Forest City Basins not shown due to

confidentiality. Gulf Coast and Piceance

Basin values not shown due to inadequate

reporting. Coal basins from USGS

(Tully, 1996)

Projection: Albers NAD 27

Coalbed Methane Annual Production from All Basins

Comparison of Two Data Sources: States and EIA-23

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

CBM

Gas/

Year

(BCF)

State Data

EIA-23 Data

U.S. Energy

Information

Administration