UNDERGROUND COAL GASIFICATION AND COAL BED METHANE THE CHALLENGE OF RESOURCE AND TENEMENT COMPETITION

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is not a new technology – the first patents were granted before World War I and successful pilot plants were operating in the then-USSR almost 80 years ago. Nonetheless it is still regarded and treated around the world as a “frontier technology.” Most resource industry participants – let alone governments – are still trying to work out just where and how UCG fits in.