United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Air and Radiation
6207-J
EPA-430-N-00-004
January 2007
COALBED	METHA
A publication of the Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP)
www.epa.gov/coalbed
United States and India Announce the Formation of a
Coal Methane Clearinghouse
o
u
T
REACH
p
R
O
CRAM
o
n 16 November 2006, the United States and India
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
to establish and support a Coalbed and Coal
Mine Methane (CBM/CMM) information center, or Clear-
inghouse, in India. Participating in the signing ceremony
held at USEPA headquarters in Washington, DC, were
William L. Wehrum, USEPA's Acting Assistant Administra-
tor for Air and Radiation, and Ambassador Raminder
Singh Jassal, deputy chief of mission, Embassy of India
(See Figure 1). An initiative of the US and India under the
Methane to Markets Partnership, the Clearinghouse will
act as the central source of information on CBM/CMM pro-
jects in India, the world's third leading coal producing
country.
see CLEARINGHOUSE page 4

Figure 1. EPA's William Wehrum and Indian Ambas-
sador Raminder Singh Jassal at the signing cere-
mony on 16 November 2006, in Washington, DC.
Methane to Markets Update
Steering Committee Meets in Rome, Italy
On 14 and 15 December 2006, the Steering Committee of the Methane to
Markets Partnership met in Rome, Italy. Delegates from 11 Partner countries
attended the meeting, which was chaired by USEPA Acting Assistant Admin-
istrator William Wehrum.
The Steering Committee made several key decisions at the meeting, in-
cluding:
¦	Officially inducted Poland to join the Partnership as the 19th Partner
country
¦	Officially inducted Poland and Germany to join the Steering Committee
¦	Reviewed the progress of each of the four Subcommittees
¦	Discussed plans for the 2007 Partnership Expo to be held in Beijing,
China on 29 October - 1 November
¦	Developed charges to the Subcommittees
For more details on the Steering committee meeting, visit the Methane to
Markets website, where minutes will be posted:
http://www.methanetomarkets.org/resources/steering/index.htm
Coal Subcommittee Meeting Now Scheduled for 3-4 April 2007, in Ge-
neva - see page 5.
see M2M UPDATE, page 5
In this issue...
1 United States and India An-
nounce the Formation of a
Coal Methane Clearinghouse
1	Methane to Markets Update
2	Update on CMM / CBM De-
velopment Activity in
Ukraine
7	CBM/CMM News
8	New Publication
9	Upcoming Events
Access documents electronically
from the "Documents, Tools, and
Resources" pages on our Web site at
www.epa.gov/coalbed
To subscribe to CBM Extra and
CMB Notes, please go to our website
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/mailinglist.html
and register for our mailing list. You
will be added within two weeks.

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January 2007
Page 2
Update on CMM / CBM Development Activity in Ukraine
Introduction
Ukraine currently produces approximately 80.5 million
tonnes of coal annually, making it the 11th largest producer
of coal in the world (BP, 2005). Coal is produced in two
major basins in Ukraine, the Donetsk Basin in southeast-
ern Ukraine (and western Russia), and the Lviv-Volyn ba-
sin in western Ukraine, which continues into Poland
(M2M-Ukraine, 2005). Figure 1 shows Ukraine's coal
fields and illustrates the location of the Donetsk region
(also known as the Donbass). During the past few years,
extensive studies have been conducted that clearly estab-
lish the presence of high levels of methane in the coai
mines and associated coal beds in the Donbass coal re-
gion. Many have been directly supported by US Govern-
ment agencies (including the US Environmental Protection
Agency (USEPA), US Department of Labor, US Agency
for International Development (USAID). and the US Trade
and Development Agency (USTDA)) as well as other gov-
ernments, including Germany, Great Britain, and Japan.
Ukraine is the world's third-largest emitter of methane
emissions from coal mining activities. According to a
USEPA-sponsored study (PEER, 2001), 95% of the meth-
ane produced from Ukrainian coalmines is vented directly
into the atmosphere (see Figure 2), wasting a tremendous
amount of energy, and impacting the environment as a
major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition,
the high levels of methane in Ukrainian coal mines repre-
sent a serious hazard to the mine worker's health and
Figure 1. Ukraine's Coal Fields
Ukraine
ugansk.
Donetsk
Donetsk
Lugansk
19	Skochireky Mine
20	Stakhanov Mine
21	Suhodolskaya-Vostochnaya Mine
22	Vynnitskaya Mine
23	Yasnovskaya-Glubokaya Mine
24	Yuzhntxlanbasskaya #1 Mine
25	Yuznnodonbasskaya #3 Mine
26	Zasyadko Mine
27	Zhdaravskaya Mine
28	Zuyevskaya Mine
29	SO Years of USSR Mine
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Almaznaya M;ne
Bazhanova Mine
Belitskaya Mine
Belozerskaya Mine
Cobropoiskaya Mine
Faschevskaya Mine
Glutottaya Mine
Gorskaya Mine
Holodnaya Balka Mine
Kalinin Mine
Kirov Mine
Komsomolets Donbassa Mine
Krasnoarmeyskaya-Zapadnaya Mine
Krasnolin^anskaya Mine
Mo odogvardeyskaya Mine
Oktyabnsiiy Rudnik Mine
Rassvet Mire
Sarrsonovskaya-Zapadnaya Mine
js—'AS is -—C

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January 2007	EXTR
safety. Each year, hundreds of coal miners are killed in
Ukrainian mines, mostly due to methane-related explo-
sions and fires - a fatality rate more than 100 times that of
US coal mines, equating to a fatality rate of six workers for
every one million tonnes of coal produced.
phases of expanding to other coal mines and coal bed
areas are expected to add another $250 million in project
costs.
The USTDA-funded study will examine the possibility of
commercial development of CMM/CBM in Donbass to in-
Figure 2. Venting of methane at the Bazhanov Mine.
Current CMM / CBM Development Efforts in Ukraine
Activities to promote the recovery of CMM are under-
way in Ukraine, with the commercial development and utili-
zation of coal mine and coalbed methane (CMM/CBM) a
priority. If successful, CMM/CBM development will have
positive benefits to the economy, environment, and the
coal industry. The prospects for CMM/CBM development
in Ukraine are improving, and several key projects, which
are already underway, are highlighted below.
Donetsk CMM/CBM Project
The Donetsk Regional Administration is currently spon-
soring a project to investigate the recovery and utilization
of CMM/CBM in several areas of the Donetsk region. The
USTDA is currently funding a feasibility study for this pro-
ject that seeks to examine the technical and economic
viability of developing CMM/CBM resources in eastern
Ukraine. Participants in the project include two coal mines
that will focus on CMM recovery, Bazhanov (see Figures 3
and 4) and South Donbass #3 coal mines, as well as two
entities that will focus on CBM production, Ecometan and
the Donetskgeologiya Company.
In August 2005, USTDA awarded a $585,570 grant to
the Donetsk Regional Administration for a feasibility study
on a proposed CMM/CBM project in the Donbass Region
of Ukraine. Preliminary analysis suggests that as much as
$250 miiiion in US exports may be generated for the initial
phase of the Project - a significant amount in the Ukrain-
ian market. When fully implemented, the project is esti-
mated to cost approximately $396 million; subsequent
Figure 3. USTDA study group members at the
Bazhanov mine in the Donetsk coal basin in
June 2006.
Figure 4. Vacuum pump for methane extraction
used at the Bazhanov mine.
crease the domestic supply of natural gas, as well as in-
crease the safety and environmental quality of the mines
in the region. The analysis will focus on developing the
best technical and economic approach for degassing Do-
netsk regional coalmines; evaluating the technical and
economic merits of producing CMM; assessing the most
likely markets and infrastructure required to utilize CMM
and CBM; and developing a financing strategy, taking into
account the potential for carbon credit sales. In addition,
the environmental benefits of methane capture and carbon
dioxide sequestration will be evaluated, with a focus on the
see UKRAINE, page 6

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