An analysis piece for Petroleum Economist’s May issue (available on the website) about Australia’s booming coal-bed methane sector. File under “boring but important”.

Australia’s CBM sector is booming, but plans for an LNG-export industry face several obstacles, writes Derek Brower

GAS IN the coal shaft was once a danger to the miners. So they carried canaries in cages when they went in: a dead one told them it was time to clear out, and quickly. No-one carries birds down the shaft anymore – hand-held gas detectors replaced them decades ago. But miners still want to know if gas is in the air, because suddenly it is valuable.

Gas trapped in the coal – variously referred to as coal-bed methane (CBM), coal-seam gas, or coal-seam methane (see box) – could transform the energy sector. Given the world’s abundant reserves of coal – 0.998 trillion recoverable tonnes (or around 4.4 trillion barrels of oil equivalent), according to the US’ Energy Information Administration – there is good reason to expect that global reserves of CBM will also grow. Some analysts describe it as an almost limitless resource. Composite Energy, a UK CBM firm, says it could be as large as 1,000 trillion cubic feet (cf), or 16% of the world’s proved reserves – yet the reserves claims of some countries, in total, dwarf even that estimate . (…) The rest is for subscribers only, I’m afraid.