Water issues limiting coal-bed methane production

The Powder River Basin would be producing 20 percent more gas if some 3,000 coal-bed methane wells were pumping instead of awaiting approval to discharge groundwater, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

“This development of coal-bed methane gas is very tightly regulated,” commission supervisor Don Likwartz told the Coal-Bed Natural Gas Water Use Task Force on Thursday. “It’s an important revenue source to the state, but it’s got to be done right.”

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