Coal seam methaneAustralia is at the forefront of the global...

Coal seam methane

Australia is at the forefront of the global energy market in terms of cost, reliability, quality and

Australia's CSM resource is large, with prospective gas-in-place estimated as over 100 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and comparable in size to gas resources in the North West Shelf. Australia's CSM operations are located predominantly in Queensland and New South Wales, however exploration is also occurring in South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Australia's major CSM producing region is the Bowen/Surat Basin in Queensland, which accounted for around 86% of production in the year to March 2006.


Coal seam methane (CSM) is a rapidly expanding energy feed stock, with the potential to make an increasingly significant contribution to Australia's energy supply. CSM is both economic to extract and price competitive with conventional natural gas. Production growth has been facilitated by new technology development and strong domestic and industrial demand for natural gas. Delays in the PNG pipeline project also contributed to escalating CSM exploration and production. Strong increases in production has resulted in CSM capturing around 45% of the Queensland market for natural gas and 15% of the total east-coast market.


CSM industry players are involved in a diverse range of methane extraction and delivery operations; from coal mine methane extraction, as a co-product from coal mine operations, for electricity generation and use at the mine; to specifically targeting CSM extraction for sale to downstream users such as power stations and other major gas consuming industries.

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