Energy Sources, Vol.17, No.1, 107-129, 1995
COAL AND COALBED METHANE RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF THE BOWSER BASIN, NORTHERN BRITISH-COLUMBIA
The Bowser Basin covers approximately 50,000 km2 within the northern part of the Intermontane Belt in northwestern British Columbia. The Groundhog coalfield encompasses approximately 5,000 km2 in the north-central part of the basin. Coal exploration in the coalfield for the last 100 years and a number of published research projects provide the raw data for an assessment of the potential coal and coalbed methane resource of the Groundhog coalfield. The main coal-bearing sequence in the coalfield is of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age and outcrops on all four sides of the northwest-trending Mount Beirnes synclinorium, which is the most prominent regional structure in the coalfield. The rank of the coal varies from sem-anthracite to meta-anthracite. Coal seams are up to 7 m thick, and cumulative coal thickness in the coal-bearing section ranges up to 53 m. The coalfield contains a potential resource of 37 billion metric tons of coal. The estimated potential coalbed methane resource of the Groundhog coalfield is 228 billion m3 or 8 trillion cubic feet (tcf). The recoverable reserves will be considerably less. The resource value is large, but the complex structure within the Beirnes synclinorium may make recovery difficult. An adsorption isotherm on a drill-core sample of anthracite from the Groundhog coalfield corroborates Kim's (1977) prediction of the high adsorptive capacity of coal of this rank at low pressure and temperature.