With the increasing proportion of natural gas in energy consumption, coal bed methane and other unconventional oil and gas resources have great potential to supplement.
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Coalbed methane (CBM) is a hydrocarbon gas occurring in coal seams, mainly composed of methane, adsorbed on the surface of coal matrix particles, partially dissociated in coal pore or dissolved in coal seam water. It is an associated mineral resource of coal and belongs to unconventional natural gas.
The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development and Utilization of Coal-bed Methane (Coal Mine Gas) proposed that by 2020, two or three industrial bases of coalbed methane should be built; the extraction capacity of coalbed methane will reach 24 billion cubic meters, of which the surface production of coalbed methane is 10 billion cubic meters and the utilization rate is more than 90%; the extraction rate of coalbed methane is 14 billion cubic meters and the utilization rate is more than 50%; the installed capacity of coal-bed methane power generation is 2.8 million kilowatts, and the 80 thousand households.
Dominant geometry
“China is one of the countries with the richest reserves of coalbed methane in the world, but due to the limitation of mining technology, the production of coalbed methane needs to be improved.” Randeep S. Grewal, president of CBM Exploration and Development and Producer G3 Exploration Co., Ltd., told First Finance and Economics: “China has large reserves of coal resources. Before mining, it is necessary to extract CBM, otherwise it will endanger the safety of miners. In addition, even if the coal mine is not mined, CBM will naturally slowly escape into the atmosphere and become one of the sources of greenhouse gases.
It is known that if CBM is directly discharged into the atmosphere, its greenhouse effect is about 21 times that of carbon dioxide. As a fuel, its calorific value is equal to that of natural gas, and it is a clean energy which can be mixed with natural gas. The gas explosion rate of coal mine will be reduced by 70% to 85% if gas is extracted before coal mining.
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Open data show that China’s CBM reserves account for about 15% of the global total, ranking third in the world, behind Canada and Russia. However, due to the complex geological environment, coal seams are fragile, faults are serious and permeability is low, there are many technical challenges.
“In the course of more than 20 years’development in China, we have seen that many foreign and local enterprises are interested in CBM, but many companies have left this field because of technology and other reasons.” G3 Exploration Co. Ltd. developed LiFabric technology, which allows drilling bits to cross multiple faults in a single well through a drilling solution for sieve pipes beneath fragile coal seams, Grivo said.
At present, G3 Exploration Co., Ltd. has eight blocks in China, mainly located in Shanxi, Jiangxi, Anhui and Guizhou. It has 559 billion cubic feet of 2P reserves and 2386 billion cubic feet of 3P reserves. Among them, 47% of the participants in Chengzhuang District, Shanxi Province, and 53% of the partners in Petroleum. 147 wells are expected to be drilled in the southern Shizhuang block of Shanxi Province in cooperation with CNOOC. The way of cooperation is to sign the product sharing contract, arrange different operators according to the contract, and operate through JMC.
“Two of the eight blocks have been commercialized. At present, 1 600 wells have been completed, of which 500 wells have been sold. In the next 12 and 18 months, more gas will be supplied. Some of the coalbed methane produced at present will enter the pipeline of West-East Gas transmission, and some will be used in power plants and downstream gas stations.” Grivo said.
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