First, it has updated the most arterial document in the Coalbed Methane Outreach Program, Identifying Opportunities for Methane Recovery at US Coal Mines: Profiles of Selected Gassy Underground Coal Mines, 2002–2006.

The 207-page book details the background information on existing CMM projects in the US and in-depth profiles of 50 US underground coal mines.

“The purpose of this report is to provide information about specific opportunities to develop methane recovery and use projects at large underground coal mines in the United States,” said officials for the CMOP.

“This report contains profiles of US coal mines that may be potential candidates for methane recovery and use, details about ongoing recovery and use projects at 14 of the mines.”

The profiles, officials said, were designed to help a future project’s developers conduct an initial screening on the viability of a CMM project.

The group noted that it was well past time to give the publication an update. “Since the last version of this report was published in September 2005, coal mine methane recovery and use in the US has continued to develop and grow from an estimated 42 billion cubic feet in 2003 to over 46Bcf in 2006,” officials said.

“At a gas price of $6.40 per thousand cubic feet, this means that coal mine methane developers had estimated revenues of more than $295 million in 2006.”

The CMOP is also distributing another update of a past publication, this one entitled Abandoned Coal Mine Methane Project Opportunities Database. Within the book are 443 abandoned (closed) underground mines in the nation that, based on estimated methane emissions, may be viable project opportunities.

It has included geographic information as well as its estimated date of mine closure and estimated methane emissions at the time of closure. The distribution, it noted, is as a companion to US Abandoned Coal Mine Methane Recovery Project Opportunities that was published by the group this July.

The CMOP has made the full publications available on its website.