CSM Workshop
An Integrated Coalbed Methane Exploration Model: Defining Coalbed Methane Exploration Sweetspots

Venue: Parkside G03
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Date: Sunday, 14 September 2008
Time: 0830 – 1700 hours
Cost: $330.00 per person

Workshop Presenter: Andrew Scott

Who Should Attend:
This coalbed methane short course is valuable to geologists, hydrologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers, who want to learn the basic fundamentals and/or review latest technologies that are applicable to coalbed methane exploration and resource development.

Course Description:
This course is designed to review the basic fundamentals of coalbed methane and to provide additional details about various aspects of coalbed methane exploration and development for those who are already familiar with coalbed methane. This course focuses on a geologic/hydrologic-centered approach to coalbed methane exploration and development of an integrated basinscale coalbed methane exploration model. Multiple exercises are included with the short course to provide the attendees with “hands-on experience” in evaluating coalbed methane prospects and defi ning coalbed methane exploration fairways. The course will begin with a series of presentations providing an overview of the fundamentals of coalbed methane including how coal reservoirs and coalbed methane production differ from conventional gas plays. A coalbed methane exploration model emphasizing key geologic and hydrologic controls on coal-gas production will be reviewed during the course. The key factors
aff ecting coalbed methane producibility include basin tectonic and structural setting, natural fracture patterns, coal depositional environments, coal rank and thermogenic and biogenic gas generation, sorption characteristics, gas content distribution, gas composition, hydrodynamics, and permeability. Several exercises will provide participants with practical hand-on experience. Topics covered in the short course include:

• Overview of the coalbed methane exploration model
• Coal Depositional Systems
• Tectonic and Structural Setting
• Coal Rank and Gas Generation
• Gas Content Distribution
• Permeability and Hydrogeology
• Resource and Reserve Calculations

Andrew Scott
Andrew R. Scott has more than 19 years of coalbed methane experience and has published more than 70 senior author papers and abstracts on various aspects of coalbed methane exploration and development. He has participated in many coalbed methane workshops and short courses in the United States as well as internationally, and has received more than a dozen awards for his research eff orts from a number of geological societies. Mr. Scott is a recent Past-President of the Energy Minerals Division of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and was a 2004 Distinguished International Speaker for the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. In 2005 he was Keynote Speaker for the Gussow Conference on CBM sponsored by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.

 

Field Trip
Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Middle Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone

Date: Thursday, 18 September 2008
Time: 0800 – 1800 hours
Cost: $85.00 per person (includes transport & lunch)

Field Trip Leader: Dr Peter J McCabe

Field Trip Description:
This fi eld trip will examine spectacular exposures of the Hawkesbury Sandstone along the coast of National Parks south of Sydney. Classically interpreted as braided river deposits, this fi eld trip will present evidence of an alternate interpretation that the formation was deposited in a subtidal environment. Discussions will centre on the merits of alternate hypotheses, the overall depositional setting, possible sequence stratigraphic interpretations, and the use of outcrops as analogs for reservoir architecture. The trip will begin in the Sydney CBD and return to the CBD via Sydney Airport, for those wishing to catch an evening
fl ight home.

Dr Peter McCabe
Dr McCabe has over 30 years experience in research related to fossil fuel resources working in industry, academia and government. He recently joined CSIRO in Sydney as leader
of oil and gas exploration and production research, having moved from Denver where he was a senior geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Dr McCabe’s research interests are in
sedimentology and stratigraphy and he has published extensively on fl uvial and deltaic strata and coal-bearing systems. He also has strong interest in petroleum resource assessment and energy economics. He has been active in many geological societies and is a Past President of SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology and is currently President-elect of the American Geological Institute (AGI). In 1999 he was co-recipient of the AAPG Wallace Pratt
Award for best paper in the AAPG Bulletin. Dr McCabe is regularly invited to give talks on energy resources to the non-geological business community and he has given presentations at the CERAWeek meetings and to the World Economic Forum.