Organic Petrography of Coals from a Coalbed Methane Test Well, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana - Usgs Open-File Report 2005-1134 (Paperback)

In March, 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Louisiana Geological Survey, and EnerVest Management Partners Ltd., participated in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to drill and core the Fairbanks Real Estate No. 359 (FRE No. 359) coalbed methane test well in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. This effort was in support of ongoing U.S. Geological Survey investigations into the coal gas potential of the Gulf Coastal Plain. To determine possible relationships between coalbed gas content and coal composition, maceral modes were determined for 17 subsurface coal and carbonaceous shale samples cored and desorbed from the Paleocene-Eocene Wilcox Group. Similar determinations of maceral mode were made on cuttings collected from 5 non-cored coaly intervals in the overlying Eocene Sparta Sand.