1. A marked increase in drilling for coalbed gas has occurred in southeastern Kansas in the last three years, with a commensurate increase in coalbed gas production.
2. Most of the activity for coalbed gas has been in southeastern Kansas in the Cherokee basin, but isolated projects farther north in the Bourbon arch and Forest City basin are in progress.
3. Most Kansas coals are thin (<2 ft [0.6 m] thick), but several can be encountered in a given well. Water pumped from the coals is easily disposed, usually into the Arbuckle Dolomite, which lies a few hundred feet below the deepest coals.
4. The Forest City basin has several coal seams that are likely older than the Riverton coal, which is generally the oldest coal in the Cherokee basin and Bourbon arch.
5. Thickness trends in many coals follow a NNE-SSW depositional strike.
6. Thermal maturation increases southward into the Cherokee basin. This increase in maturation is manifest in the greater heating values of conventional gas and coalbed gas in this region.
7. A mixed biogenic and thermogenic origin of the coalbed gas in eastern Kansas is indicated by gas chemistry and stable isotopes. Some of the biogenic gas may be due to biogenic oxidation of existing hydrocarbons.
8. Possible biogenic and thermogenic production fairways may be present in eastern Kansas.

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Last updated May 2004
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/PRS/publication/2004/AAPG/Coalbed/P3-07.html