Most energy consumers turn on their heaters every winter, perhaps complaining about the “amount due” line on their utility bill, without giving much thought to where the natural gas that warms their home comes from  or how much of it is left.

But researchers at the Kansas Geological Survey, a division of Kansas University, make their living studying the state’s natural resources.

They know, for example, that production at Kansas’ largest natural gas field is down. They also know that forward-looking suppliers are exploring a new source of natural gas: coalbed methane.

“There are a huge number of wells being dug in eastern Kansas that haven’t been drilled before,” said Rex Buchanan, associate director of the survey. “You even have people leasing ground for gas production in Douglas County, which is very unusual.”

Investigations of this new resource rank near the top of the list of what’s new at the survey, right below the issue that continues to plague programs university wide: the budget.

“Things are looking pretty grim going into the year, but we will do what we can to meet our needs to respond to the state’s natural resources,” said Barb McClain, the survey’s associate director for administration.

The survey is phasing out its mathematical geology program and its six staff members by the end of this year. The cuts are part of the university’s strategy to help counter a $7.1 million shortfall in state funding.

Meanwhile, survey scientists continue to be involved in investigations surrounding the 2001 natural gas explosions in Hutchinson, water supply issues with the Ogala Aquifer and other geological research across the state.

A new fuel source

State gas production dropped by 8 percent last year, the survey reports.

“Coalbed methane is a way to replace some of that production that’s going away,” Buchanan said.

Eastern Kansas is home to a lot of coal that is tinged with sulfur and occurs in thin beds, sometimes no more than a foot deep, Buchanan said. So, it wouldn’t be very economical to dig it up. But drilling through the coal beds releases methane that can be sold to natural gas customers.

“Coal has methane stuck to it, so when you reduce the pressure on the coal, it’s like opening up a pop bottle,” said Tim Carr, head of the survey’s petroleum research section. “The gas comes off the coal and can come up the well bore.”

Though coalbed methane is just beginning to catch on in the state, it accounts for nearly 10 percent of all natural gas production in the United States, Carr said. Potential production from coal beds in Kansas could be as high as 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, he said, enough to supply Kansas customers for probably 100 years.

By comparison, the massive Hugoton natural gas field  which supplied about 59 percent of Kansas natural gas in 2001 and lies underneath 13 counties in southwest Kansas and parts of Oklahoma and Texas  has produced approximately 30 trillion cubic feet since coming into production in 1929.

Lingering investigations

Survey scientists were dispatched to Hutchinson as detectives in January 2001, when natural gas seeped through abandoned wells and caused fiery explosions.

After a year of investigations, they decided that in the most likely scenario, the gas escaped through a hole in a pipe at the Yaggy storage facility 10 miles northwest of Hutchinson and traveled uphill through arch-like folds in the rock known as anticlines.

Buchanan has estimated that 143 million cubic feet of gas escaped. Wells were drilled to vent off lingering gas, though scientists still aren’t sure how much of it remains under the city. The survey is now running pressure-buildup tests to determine whether it’s safe to plug the wells that were created to release the excess gas, Buchanan said.

In addition, a survey employee this summer has been using electrical methods in an attempt to locate other abandoned wells because the ones that caused the explosions “were wells that nobody knew were there,” Buchanan said.

Making sacrifices

Although research in most survey divisions will continue as normal this school year, staff and students who work in the mathematical geology program will be wrapping up during the program’s final year.

The department analyzes data for other departments at the survey and conducts research.

The department’s six full-time staff members will leave the survey with the program.

Job vacancies in other departments aren’t being filled this year either, McClain said.

“We knew the (financial) situation was not going to get any better,” she said. “And it’s not anticipated to get any better in coming fiscal years.”

She said the survey employed about 80 staff members and an additional 40 to 50 students. Its budget for fiscal year 2002 is about $6 million in state-funded appropriations and about $2 million in outside grants and contracts.