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Written question asked by Daniel Byles (Conservative) on Friday, 12 October 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 16 October 2012. It was answered by John Hayes (Conservative) on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Natural Gas

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the potential size of domestic UK coal bed methane reserves; and if he will make a statement.

[123151]

Answer

DECC commissioned a BGS study in 2010 which estimated that the UK total coal bed methane (CBM) resource (or hydrocarbons in place) is large—about 2,900 billion cubic metres, based on identifying coal resources that are thick enough, with gas content >lm3/tonne, away from worked coalmine seams, aquifers and coal mine methane recovery:

http://og.decc.gov.uk/media/viewfile.ashx?filetype=4&filepath=og/ep/onshore/Promote_UK_CBM.pdf

But the presence of a CBM resource does not imply that the geotechnical conditions required to establish significant gas flow (e.g. permeability in the coal seams) exist nor that the resource can be recovered economically.

Estimation of reserves will depend on proving commerciality. There are two pilot CBM fields producing methane gas in the UK, Potteries and Doe Green, which have yet to prove commerciality. However, the Airth CBM field, in Scotland has seen significant, investment and there are plans for a full-scale development which are currently under review.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
123151; 551 c326W
Session
2012-13
Subjects
Natural gas Natural resources Methane
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk