For Immediate Release

April 27, 2007

Atlantic Rim Methane Seeps Linked to
Coalbed Methane Drilling
Tests Indicate Exceptionally High Methane Concentrations

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LARAMIE – New test results from methane seeps along the Atlantic Rim indicate that almost pure methane is bubbling up along the coal seam that is being dewatered for coalbed methane production by exploratory wells in the Atlantic Rim project area. It appears that the methane seeps are associated with dewatering of coal seams during the course of producing coalbed methane wells, rather than with the injection of the salty wastewater that is produced as a byproduct.

Based on tests conducted early this April, laboratory results showed that methane concentrations dissolved in water in the bubbling ‘mud pots’ exceeded 100,000 parts per million in some areas, with methane making up more than 17 percent of the volume of the water. The gases erupting from the seeps were found to be almost pure methane.

Walt Merschat is a consultant in the petroleum industry who started his career with Gulf Oil Company’s Research Department, locating and measuring methane seeps as a means to find oil and gas deposits underground. “These are the biggest methane seeps I’ve ever seen in my life, and probably some of the biggest in the world,” said Merschat. “There are probably thousands of cubic feet per minute being released into the sky at the outcrop, and every bit of this wasted coalbed methane is product that cannot be captured into pipelines and sold to meet the nation’s energy appetite.”

“Methane is a global warming gas 12 to 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide,” added Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “If the 2,000-well coalbed methane project planned for this area further accelerates the release of methane to the sky, the project could have a major impact on global warming that the BLM has never considered in its environmental impact analysis.”

Coalbed methane production works by pumping the water out of coal seams to allow methane to be produced. As the hydraulic pressure is released, the methane bubbles off the coal, much like carbonation bubbles streaming up from the edge of a bottle of soda pop

“The methane seeps occur along eastern edges of the Lewis Shale, near its contact with the underlying Almond Formation. The Almond is an organic-rich rock unit that is a main target for coalbed-methane production in exploratory pods just to the west,” said Jason Lillegraven, a paleontologist associated with excavations in the eastern Washakie and Great Divide Basins. “From outcrop relationships, it appears that the methane seeps originate in coals of the Almond Formation and in the similar, but somewhat deeper Allen Ridge Formation, from which coalbed-methane companies are pumping the water. It seems improbable that the methane derives from the much deeper sandstones into which the wastewater is reinjected.”

The testing documented methane seeps both old and new, including major new methane seeps along Cow Creek and Deep Gulch, established mud pots, and methane seeping out of the ground. Levels were often high enough to set off warning beeps on an explosive gas detector used for the testing. “The methane seeps associated with springs and creeks are only the tip of the iceberg,” observed Merschat. “They’re the ones that are the most obvious because you can see the water bubbling. But methane is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and it’s also seeping out of dry cracks in the ground, according to our measurements. The amount of methane that is simply seeping out of the ground is very difficult to measure, but it’s also likely to be significant.”

“Invisible methane seeping up from the ground presents a major safety hazard,” added Molvar. “This area is very popular with hunters, and someone pitching a tent near a methane seep could be overcome if their tent fills up with gas, or become the victim of a fatal explosion if they lit a cigarette or a camp stove inside a gas-filled tent.”

The methane seeps also have major implications for the economic viability of the project. The strata dip westward in this part of the Red Desert, and coalbed methane wells are producing methane from parts of the formation at a depth of 350 to more than 4,000 feet, while to the east the coal seam crops out at the surface. “If all of the coalbed methane that lies above the wellbores is lost at the outcrop instead of being pumped into a pipeline, that could have a major impact on the predictions for how how much CBM can be produced and seriously impact project economics,” noted Merschat. “It could even render the project uneconomic.”

“The BLM needs to go back and undertake a major re-assessment of the impacts of this project, which appear to be even greater than initially feared,” concluded Molvar. “Given the major new impacts that have just been revealed, the BLM needs to go back to the drawing board and investigate the cause, volume and distribution of the methane seepage.

Photos of the methane seeps are available upon request.