Advances in coalbed methane reservoirs integrated characterization and hydraulic fracturing for improved gas recovery in Karaganda Coal Basin, Kazakhstan

Coalbed methane (CBM) fields in Karaganda Coal Basin are characterized by geological and structural complexity. Majority of production zones have high methane content and extremely low permeability of the coal seams that lead to reservoir stimulation problems. In order to have a successful hydraulic fracturing program we applied integrated reservoir characterization to monitor key parameters. In addition to logging data, core sample analysis was applied to observe the relation between lithological variations found by the use of magnetic susceptibility values and permeability measurements to identify the best CBM reservoir candidates for hydraulic fracturing.