BlueCreek Energy

BlueCreek Energy is a Denver based energy company engaged in developing conventional and non-conventional natural gas resources in Continental North America. BlueCreek's primary non-conventional development program is extracting Coal Bed Methane (CBM) out of the coal beds of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. CBM is natural gas that is trapped within buried coal and is stored, or adsorbed, onto the internal surfaces of the coal. Geologists have long known that coal was the source for natural gas found in many conventional accumulations, but coalbeds were not targeted for production due to high water content and minimal natural gas production. Following a West Virginia mine explosion in 1968, the U.S. Bureau of Mines began to examine ways of removing methane from coal prior to mining. The Bureau of Mines demonstrated that CBM can be produced when large volumes of water are pumped from a coal seam. In a process known as dewatering or depressuring, a submersible pump is set below the coal seam, and the water column is pumped down, reducing the pressure in the coals. Newer technical understanding of coal bed dewatering and advances in CBM completion practices allows BlueCreek to commingle multiple coal zones in a single wellbore. This advance results in significantly more daily volumes of CBM and environmentally friendly disposition of the produced water. 

CBM production is expected to increase substantially due to the tremendous reserve potential of the numerous, virtually undeveloped U.S. coal basins. Within the Rocky Mountain region, the Powder River Basin has become a major CBM producing basin. According to the U.S. Department of Energy 2002 Powder Basin Coalbed Methane Development and Produced Water Management Study, the Powder River Basin is estimated to have substantial recoverable natural gas reserves. Approximately 1.01 Bcf of CBM is produced from the Powder River Basin per day.