A China-American joint venture announced that it had made a breakthrough in efforts to develop coal-bed methane (CBM) resources in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Lin Yucheng, the Chinese geological representative on the program, told Xinhua they had so far sunk five test wells, one of which is capable of producing 2,000 cubic meters of CBM daily.

China United Coalbed Methane Co. Ltd. (CUCBM) and the Far East Energy Corporation, with headquarters in Houston of Texas, the United States, signed a CBM production sharing contract (PSC) in Beijing on Dec. 3, 2002 for launching a cooperative program to explore rich CBM resources in the Enhong and Laochang areas, both of which are conventional coal producing bases in Yunnan.

Under the contract, the program will have a term of 30 years and 13 CBM wells will be sunk in an area of 1,072 square km in Yunnan, where there are 148.3 billion cubic meters of estimated gas reserves.

Far East Energy Corporation, the American partner, will bear 8 million US dollars of venture investment needed during the first three years of the prospecting stage.

Industry experts believe CBM will become a practical and reliable substitute energy resource to natural gas as the global shortage of energy resources has been worsening and the supply of conventional natural gas falls short of market demand.

Being one of the world's leading coal producers and consumers, China boasts a total of 30-35 trillion cubic meters of CBM resources. However, the country is notorious for the highest rate of coalmine accident fatalities in the world.

Coal-bed methane, which is blamed for 70 percent to 80 percent of the coalmine accidents nationwide, is the No. 1 killer factor that endangers coalmine security, said Gui Baolin, a coal-bed methane specialist.

The country started to explore and utilize coal-bed methane for the benefit of mankind in the 1990s. So far, over 200 CBM wells have been sunk across the country, most of which are still in the prospecting and experimental stage and far away from commercial operation due to factors such as a lack of technologies and inadequate investment, with the daily CBM output record being 16, 000 cubic meters.

Gas harnessing has won greater attention from the Chinese government. At a recent national meeting on coalmine gas harnessing, Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju said gas harnessing was paramount in China's endeavor to improve security on coalmines across the country.

"It is an arduous, complicated and long-standing task to harness gas and prevent gas accidents on coalmines," said the Chinese vice premier.

Starting from this year, a special financing of 30 million yuan (about 3.62 million US dollars) will be set aside by the government to start a program with the mission of encouraging innovation of technologies for harnessing coalmine gas.

Lin Yucheng, the geological representative on the China-US program, said: "CBM exploration before coal digging can effectively reduce gas content in coal strata in a bid to prevent coalmine gas explosions."

"We hope our cooperation with the American partner will shed light on China's efforts to probe for effective ways to harness and make a good of use of gas," said Lin.

He disclosed that in the latter half of the year, they would introduce the most advanced construction technology in the CBM environment -- unbalanced multi-lateral horizontal well drilling technique -- and sink three new test wells in Laochang of Yunnan and Shouyang of north China's Shanxi Province.

Source: Xinhua