The possibility of developing methane-coal deposits in the Korotaikha depression of the Pechora basin

Abstract

The Pechora coal basin is considered to be one of the promising targets for the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbon raw materials – coalbed methane. Korotaikha depression is a structural subdivision of two basins – the Timano-Pechora oil and gas basin and Pechora coal basin. Currently, there is a favorable situation for the development of coalbed methane resources: on the one hand, the construction of new coal enterprises is postponed indefinitely, on the other hand, oil producing companies come with technologies close to the technologies for self-extracting methane from coal seams.The issue of perspective methane-coal fields of the Korotaikha depression in the Pechora coal basin is considered in the article. Favorable conditions and significant (about 900 billion cubic meters) methane resources predetermine the prospects of this territory for its independent production. The geological characteristics of the fields are considered and their ranking is carried out taking into account the preliminary selection of the most promising methane-coal objects. Due to the different degree of exploration of fields and the lack of (complete or partial) necessary data, some of the geological indicators served as evaluation criteria, and the preliminary assessment carried out. The prospects of four fields for the experimental work on the methane extraction opportunities are justified.

Keywords

• The Pechora coal basin
• Korotaikha depression
• methane-coal deposits
• promising methane-coal objects
• exploration