Analogy on CBM reservoir formation and its exploration potential in low-rank coal bearing basins in China and other parts of world: An example of Tuha Basin in China and Powder River Basin in USA

Based on the coalbed methane background,such as sedimentary,strata,coal formation and structure in both Tuha Basin and Powder River Basin,and combined with the CBM data obtained from coal reservoir exploration,CBM deposition and their exploitation potential are analyzed by contrast in this paper.The research result indicates that although both Tuha Basin and Powder River Basin respectively belong to defferent geo tectonics units with different basin evolution,but coal bearing characteristics are similar in some aspects like coalification with the feature of low rank coal,good coal bearing characteristics,sedimentary and geolydrologic conditions.Therefore,both basins could be drawn an analogy in CBM reservoir formation.The fact of lots of CBM industrial development conducted successfully in Powder River Basin indicates that even if the gas content is lower in low rank coal basin,it also has the large potential in CBM resources exploitation as long as various reservoir conditions are suitable for CBM storage.