GREEN RIVER - After years of exploratory drilling projects and numerous environmental studies, the rapidly developing coal-bed methane play in southern and southwest Wyoming could finally arrive in full bloom in 2008, according to industry officials.

While the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming will continue to be the focus of the state's coal-bed methane production in the near future, expect to see coal-bed methane development move to other parts of the state in the coming year, officials said.

Sweetwater and Carbon counties in southern Wyoming will most likely see the initial coal-bed activity outside of the Powder River Basin, said Bj. Kristiansen, a professional geologist and assistant coordinator of the Wyoming Coalbed Methane Coordination Coalition.

The massive Atlantic Rim project in the Great Divide Basin in Carbon County and the Hiawatha project proposed for southern Sweetwater County are expected to bring thousands of new coal-bed methane wells to each region over the next decade.

Coal-bed methane development in areas such as Sweetwater County may be particularly attractive to energy companies, in part because most of the pilot projects are occurring in the midst of ongoing, conventional natural gas development.

Officials said the necessary infrastructure is already in place, which should make it easier for industry operators to develop coal-bed methane reserves.

"I suspect we'll see the coal-bed methane play opening up very fast in 2008 (in southern Wyoming)," Kristiansen said in a phone interview.

"Coal-bed methane is moving out of the Powder River Basin in the sense that other areas of the state are beginning to come on line now fairly well," he said.

The Powder River Basin, of course, is still full of coal-bed methane development and continues to grow, he said.

"The Powder has slowed down a bit, though, not because there's any less leases, but because they're drilling a lot deeper now than they used to there," Kristiansen said. "And as it slows down in the Powder, it can be picked up in other places because you have the rig availability, among other things."

Kristiansen said one big reason for the expected development is that the lengthy, federal analyses of many proposed coal-bed methane projects in southern Wyoming are just now being completed.

"I absolutely expect coal-bed methane (growth), the reason being is that a lot of those environmental impact statements finally have gone through," he said. "Those EISs have been slowing down development in those areas before they could really get going full bore."

There are about a dozen companies interested in coal-bed methane development in southern Wyoming, including such energy producers as Anadarko, Barrett Resources, Double Eagle, Petroleum Development, Patina, Devon and Yates.

More gas than the Powder?

Coal-bed methane is found by tapping into reservoirs of gas buried in underground coal beds. The natural gas is trapped in fissures and fractures of the beds by the pressure of underground aquifers.

The gas is released when the water is pumped to the surface, easing the pressure and allowing the gas to follow the water up to the surface.

Energy companies have been looking for several years at whether Sweetwater, Carbon and Fremont counties' coal contains enough methane, and enough fractures in the coal seams, to make it economically viable to develop the resource.

Since 2000, there have been 14 coal-bed methane exploratory pilot projects undertaken in Carbon County, according to Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data.

There have been 13 exploratory projects in Sweetwater County since 2002 and three in Fremont County.

"Most every pilot program that was put into place and run for some period of time was able to show good gas," Kristiansen said. "So I guess as word gets around, we'll see more and more interest in that."

Kristiansen said the pilot drilling results have been "generally better than the Powder River Basin was, as far as quantities of gas and the possible longevity" of production.

"But we don't really know about that yet, because there's not enough long-term wells in Sweetwater or Carbon counties that have been giving gas long enough to look at a decline curve," he said.

"But the initial (test wells) show that if you compare those to what we saw in the Powder, they're a lot better," Kristiansen said. "Sometimes it's five times more gas coming out of these holes on the average than there was in the Powder River Basin."

Unlike the Powder River Basin's markedly shallow, yet methane-rich coal beds, coal seams in southwest Wyoming run thousands of feet deeper, according to geologists.

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.