• Coal Geology Fundamentals - for the CBM, Mining and Environmental Industries

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Designed For :

• Petroleum engineers, mining engineers and geologists who wish to really understand what makes a coal based project tick.
• Geologists who may have come from another discipline (e.g. hard rock or petroleum geology) and are now working closely with coal or CBM.
• Potential investors wishing to make sense out of ASX announcements, and understand the key requirements for success.
• Hydrologists, and environmental professionals wishing to understand the interplay between coal seams and water.
• CBM managers who wish to understand the drivers behind CBM variability across a range of basins, and achieve a global perspective on how their play compares with others.
• Anyone wishing to establish a basic understanding of coal geology.

 

Course Highlights :

• Participants will gain a clearer understanding of the inherent differences between coal based projects, and the drivers and implications that are a consequence of that variability.
• This will be gained in a distinctly Australian context, with due reference to major domestic and international coal mining, and CBM resource plays.
• An understanding of how coal seams form, and how they change with time will be a key learning outcome from this course.
• An understanding of the major technical / geological reasons why projects fail.
• The important interplay between hydrology and coal seams will be explained, particularly in light of current controversies relating to connectivity with agricultural aquifers, and dewatering in general.
• Understanding coal geology and the implications of gas emissions, and a carbon trading world will be explained.

 

Course Overview :

A comprehensive course reviewing the fundamentals of coal geology. What makes your resource play tick? How can we explain the variability, context and the implications? Coal geology is the fundamental building block that underpins successful many unconventional gas, CBM, mining and many environmental projects.
This course is designed to assist individuals throughout the CBM, financial, coal and petroleum industries understand their coal based play / resource and what drives the success or otherwise of many projects.

The course will cover the fundamentals of coal geology in a manner that emphasises relevance to practical outcomes

 

Agenda :

Industry fundamentals review
• Overview of the global coal and Coal Bed Methane industry
• Major projects
• Likely future directions

Coal fundamentals
• How is coal formed?
• The chemistry of coal
• Understanding the geology of coal
• Rock structures
• Stratigraphy
• Coal petrology
• Gas formation, origins and distribution in the subsurface
• Understanding reservoirs and porosities
• The concept of permeability, and saturation
• Groundwater and coal
• Different types of coal beds and depositional environments
• Where are favourable formations?

Coal Basin Analysis
• How to assess a coal basin play
• The tricks, and the traps: what to look out for and how to go about an
evaluation of a coal based play
• Practical outcomes: how to reduce geological risk in coal based resource
plays

Coal and Mining
• The specific key aspects of coal plays that affect mining
• How to deal with variability in the subsurface
• Mining and gas: what’s different to a CBM play?

Coal and CBM
• The specific key aspects of coal plays that affect Coal Seam Gas operations
• How to deal with variability in the subsurface
• Kindred spirits: how to live with overlapping tenure; mining and CBM
• Groundwater and agriculture: CBM, symbiotic relationships and areas of conflict

Coal and other uses
• Underground Coal Gasification – where does UCG fit with CBM and mining operations, is there compatibility?
• Enhanced CBM techniques. “Real time” gas production?
• Sequestration and storage. Can our coal basins act as CO2 sinks?
• More on overlapping tenure issues.

Exercises
• Mini group based exercises that explore the points above, and assist the learning process, taken from real life examples.

Wrap up & discussion