Coalbed Methane

Unlocking coalbed methane potential through innovative technology application and a holistic approach
Coalbed methane (CBM) reserves are a relatively untapped energy source with huge potential: coal can contain up to
seven times the amount of gas volume of traditional reservoirs. Estimated reserves are 7,500 trillion cubic feet
globally with more than 700 trillion cubic feet in the United States alone.
Maximizing CBM recovery requires more than just proven experience in conventional reservoirs it requires an ability
to transfer this experience to the unique challenges and characteristics of coal. No one has more experience
delivering successful CBM projects than Halliburton. Indeed, almost all CBM producers choose Halliburton as their
service company partner.
Applying proven technology to overcome challenges in coalbed methane recovery
Coalbed methane has complex characteristics, and although conventional technology is used in its recovery, the
application of these technologies is quite different.
Halliburton understands how to effectively apply technology to evaluate CBM reservoirs, which is the most critical,
and often the most difficult task for a CBM prospector. Once a reservoir is deemed economically viable, drilling and
production technologies come into play. Halliburton has pioneered key CBM technologies that lead the market in their
ability to reduce drilling time and enhance production.
Understanding actual production potential requires a lifecycle approach
To confirm the true viability of a CBM play, Halliburton employs an analysis of the entire reservoir that includes
applying an understanding of regional differences and considering all key environmental factors. This helps ensure a
thorough understanding of actual production potential before significant investment decisions are made, thereby
helping to reduce risk of failure at the development phase. In fact, Halliburton's lifecycle approach has actually
resulted in the transformation of non-commercial developments into commercial successes.
Lowering cost and increasing production over the lifetime of the well
CBM production can be expensive and technically challenging, requiring the right knowledge to apply the right
portfolio of technology and processes. To optimize production and help reduce costs over the lifetime of the reservoir,
Halliburton has the expertise and proven track record in coalbed methane to deliver the right solution for your specific
CBM reservoir needs.

Holistic Approach to Basin Development

Challenge
Conventional oil and gas approaches will not ensure commercial CBM success. Indeed, CBM plays require experts
who know how to apply a holistic approach to evaluating and developing the prospect. This involves understanding
how the reservoir's various life cycle phases each affect the customer's different objectives and decision points in
developing the asset.
Solution

Converting development opportunities to development successes involves integrating planning and evaluation
methods, choosing the right technical solutions for each phase, and managing risk from the very beginning. In many
large-scale projects, wells are often simultaneously in multiple life cycle stages, so evaluation must be properly
conducted to determine the technologies that will optimize production.
Another reason for a systems approach is that CBM plays have high up-front development costs. That makes an
early, accurate assessment of the economic potential especially critical; without it, full production and payoff to offset
production costs may not be realized. During drilling operations, Halliburton's expertise in real-time reservoir analysis
has helped customers stay in the pay zone, avoid screenout and accelerate project timelines to more quickly meet
project goals.
Halliburton has successfully evaluated multi-phase CBM projects so that the optimal enabling technologies can be
applied at each stage of a project. From providing geoscience, engineering and economic decision support
capabilities to well pattern optimization, logging while drilling, consulting and project management, Halliburton offers a
comprehensive set of solutions to lower costs and improve recovery.

Defining the Asset at the Coal Face

Challenge
Coal formation evaluation uses many of the same methods applied in conventional wells. However, significant
differences in coalbed reservoir properties, gas storage mechanisms, gas transport, resource decline and water
disposal require a customized approach.
Solution
Defining the asset is arguably one of the most critical stages of CBM development. Halliburton has the key
technologies that help our customers optimize wellbore placement, maximize production, reduce costs and extend
field life.
Reservoir simulation may be the most efficient and reliable means of determining an optimized asset development
program. For minimal cost, simulation allows producers to assess production potential, determine completion options
and, in conjunction with economic analysis and reservoir characterization, optimize the geospatial well pattern.
Halliburtons microseismic fracture mapping capabilities also increase reservoir productivity and reduce completion
costs by optimizing well placement and fracturing programs. Microseismic fracture mapping provides the image and
location of natural fractures next to the hydraulic fracture. Another advantage of using this technique is that it can be
performed in the treatment well when suitable offset monitoring wellbores are not available.*
Core analysis is also critical when defining the asset to estimate gas reserves. Halliburtons methods for CBM
reservoirs apply CT technology, resulting in faster results than conventional techniques and up-front assessment of
producibility potential. This is especially useful for CBM because many pioneer areas do not have existing data
available.
Halliburton has made significant technical breakthroughs in well logging techniques specific to CBM, including log
processing methods and core-log integration techniques. These breakthroughs have enabled better visualization of
the coal seam than ever before. In addition, Halliburtons cleat permeability tools provide a cost-effective method for
mapping basin-wide permeability trends, which can be used as an exploration tool.
* Technology licensed from ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company

Addressing Drilling and Completions in Coal

Challenge
Coalbed methane drilling and completions depend on a full understanding of the reservoir and the unique application
of technologies.
Solution
Drilling Halliburton's drilling advances and expertise have set industry standards for CBM through the application
of conventional technologies to the unique characteristics of coal. And, in addition to discrete services, we can
integrate the drilling approach through a thorough understanding of the reservoir for improved efficiencies and results.
We offer some of the deepest experience in unconventional drilling in the industry, including drilling techniques,
fracturing, drill bits, logging and cementing services.
Horizontal drilling maximizes reservoir exposure in CBM wells with marginal permeability, boosting ultimate recovery
by as much as 50 percent. Horizontal wellbores are effective in reservoirs that are relatively thin and naturally
fractured. Halliburton offers mapping and geosteering technology to help producers stay in the zone during horizontal
drilling, thereby maximizing reservoir recovery.
In some basins with a number of thin coals not appropriate for a horizontal completion, vertical wells and
hydraulically-fractured multiple layers with multiple stages are appropriate. Halliburtons vertical well solutions include
specialized drilling techniques, bits and motors, logging while drilling, and other surveying technologies that maximize
recovery. Air coiled tubing drilling can cut drilling time in half; in fact, Halliburton customers have successfully drilled to
TD in just one or two days.
Halliburton's drilling fluid systems also enhance drilling performance, especially in challenging wells. Conventional
petroleum wells are usually drilled using water-based or oil-based drilling fluids, while CBM wells are commonly
drilled with air, air-mist, foam, air-foam or produced formation water. Compared to mud drilling, these methods
produce higher ROP, less formation contamination, and a smaller volume of solids to be disposed.
Completions Halliburton understands the technologies and techniques needed to complete a CBM well while
minimizing damage. Fracture monitoring with microseismic technology provides the most direct measurement of
fracture direction, length, and height outside of mine backs.
In addition, intelligent completion architectures are necessary for efficient drainage of complex reservoirs. For single
laterals in coal seams that can be fractured, multiple fracs along the length of the lateral can be accomplished with
jetting technology to precisely cut, initiate, and fracture the formation in openhole through a non-cemented or a
cemented liner. Specialized completion systems, isolation systems and packers allow continuous completion of a well
from toe to heel, enabling the stimulation of selected zones initially and additional zones later.
Lightweight slurries are usually preferred for CBM well cementation because fracture gradients are most likely to be
low in CBM formations. Many lightweight additives are available to enable preparation of lightweight slurries. Foamed
slurries offer the most versatility in slurry tailoring for a given well, and the cement sheath produced by foamed
cement is resilient in the face of pressure changes from stimulation or production throughout the life of the well.

Mitigating Reservoir Damage

Challenge
Extending the life of the coalbed methane field is a necessary part of CBM development. A critical part of production
enhancement involves avoiding and reversing damage in the coalbed.
Solution

Avoiding and reversing damage in a coal bed is one area where oil and gas technology is not transferable. For this,
Halliburton developed a post-fracture service that has significantly reversed production declines in numerous coalbed
methane wells by removing wellbore damage and coal fines blockage. It also restricts the mobility of formation fines,
degrades polymer remaining from fracturing operations and helps to dissolve in-situ precipitates or carbonate scales.
Halliburton has also developed conductivity endurance technology to enhance production by increasing coal
permeability. These technologies not only reduce reservoir and environmental risk factors, but they also help to
optimize production.
Avoiding and reversing damage is critical in any oil and gas well, but in CBM plays, the consequences are more than
a possible shut-in and lost production. If a CBM well is shut down for an extended period after it has started
producing gas, the water in the coal will collect at the wellbore, requiring a repeat of the long de-watering process.

Accessing the Reservoir Through Stimulation

Challenge
Very few coalbed methane reservoirs can produce commercial rates of methane without some type of production
enhancement.
Solution
Cavitation, underreaming and hydraulic fracture stimulation were developed for CBM production. Although cavitation
and underreaming techniques have had limited success, hydraulic fracturing is by far the most effective way to
stimulate a CBM well. Because all coal beds are not alike, optimizing the stimulation process through the right
combination of proppants and stimulation fluids depends on a thorough reservoir analysis and an experienced
stimulation team.
Halliburtons experience and approach, combined with CBM-specific fracturing fluids, biocidal treatments, proppants,
drilling techniques and other technologies, help producers control and fix damage in the wellbore, dramatically
enhancing production in under-producing wells and even restarting production in wells that are no longer producing.
Halliburton has also achieved a number of game-changing industry firsts in CBM. For example, Halliburton developed
and fielded pinpoint stimulation technology, a rapid and cost-effective fracturing technique that employs coiled tubing
and straddle packers to fracture-stimulate numerous discrete, thin-seam completions in one trip. Halliburton also
helped significantly improve production in thousands of Uinta Basin CBM wells by using a remedial backflush
technology to treat hydraulically-fractured wells damaged from coal fines and precipitation during the production
process.

Environmental Compliance and Water Management

Challenge
It is a given today that companies must meet or exceed environmental, health and safety standards required by law,
and that the energy industry is constantly challenged to go beyond compliance and reduce its environmental
footprint. In CBM, water has a major impact on production because significant coalbed production only happens after
dewatering has occurred. Once removed, water must be disposed of properly, used for a beneficial purpose, or
reinjected into a compatible subsurface formation to ensure that there is no negative impact on the environment.
Fracturing fluids used in the production process must also be carefully managed to ensure their environmental impact
is reduced. All of this comes at a cost, impacting CBM economics.

Solution
Halliburton has always gone beyond compliance to focus on sustainability in everything we do. From developing
environmentally-friendly fluids to effective water management, we understand how critical it is to leave the places
where we work better than we found them, while also ensuring our customers are profitable.
CBM wells produce large quantities of water in their initial development stages. If the water saturations and
production rates are unknown before drilling, an operator may be faced with high costs for disposal, reinjection,
surface discharge and pumping issues. Halliburton can accurately estimate water production rates, volumes,
composition and disposal so that the true economics of the reservoir are captured.
Halliburton's solutions filter and treat produced and flow back water to meet requirements for use in drilling, fracturing
and reinjection. In fact, Halliburton has enabled operators to meet the U.S. Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (including
the Underground Injection Control program) and the Clean Water Act (including the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System permitting requirements) all important advantages in CBM development. Halliburton technology
also meets requirements for aromatics such as benzene in gelled fluids. And in 2003, Halliburton led the initiative to
eliminate the use of diesel in the production of fracturing fluids.
As a conservation measure, the energy industry is increasingly reusing produced and flowback water, which can be a
source of severe bacterial contamination and require high levels of biocidal treatment to be usable. Halliburtons
biocidal treatments integrate with its water- and gel-based fracturing fluid systems and proprietary ultraviolet light
bacteria control process, allowing operators to significantly reduce the amount of biocides used.

Coalbed Methane HSE & Service Quality

Coalbed methane success depends on HSE performance
It is a given that today, companies must meet or exceed environmental,
health and safety standards required by law. Halliburton has always gone
beyond compliance levels to focus on sustainability in everything we do. From
developing environmentally-friendly fluids, to our carbon capture and storage
expertise, we understand how critical it is to leave the places where we work
better than we found them. This is especially important in coalbed methane
(CBM).
Reducing our environmental footprint for a sustainable energy future
While alternative fuels have promise, the need for traditional fuels including
natural gas and oil is likely to remain substantial for decades. But there are
significant environmental challenges; for example, natural gas resources are
more and more frequently being produced from unconventional plays (e.g.,
gas shales, tight sands and coalbed methane) and cannot be adequately
secured and delivered to the customer economically without the use of
fracture stimulation technology.
The oil and gas industry protects the environment by taking steps to prevent
the escape of fracture stimulation fluids from wells and formations. Operators use a steel casing or liner which is then
cemented in place to isolate the surrounding rock from the reservoir. These zonal isolation techniques seal off and
protect drinking water from fluids used in wells. In addition, fracture stimulation activities take place at depths that are
typically thousands of feet deeper than any groundwater aquifers that could reasonably be considered a source of
drinking water.
Even so, Halliburton continues to improve our fracture stimulation fluids and processes to further enhance their
overall environmental performance. While the majority of fracturing fluids are sand and water, the remaining portion
involves complex chemistry, much of which has been created through Halliburton's research and development efforts,
and which is managed in accordance with proper industry and governmental procedures.

Applying carbon capture and storage expertise to coalbed methane

When coal, oil and gas are burned, they all produce carbon dioxide as a common byproduct. Until recently, this manmade CO2wasn't considered a serious environmental threat. But now many studies show carbon dioxide to be the
major human-generated source of greenhouse gases. And the world is aggressively looking for practical ways to
reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. By capturing and sequestering CO2 into the ground, the industry has the
potential to not only reduce emissions but also enhance oil and gas production.
In coalbed methane, as in other methods of producing oil and gas, CO2 can be injected into the ground to enhance
production. This is not a new concept Halliburton has been working with CO2 injection for more than 40 years. This
allows producers to extract methane from coal beds as shallow as 985 feet (300 meters) deep. Halliburton continues
to apply its carbon capture and storage expertise to stimulate production and protect the environment, making carbon
capture and storage a reality.