Dry Horseshoe Canyon coals once supplied 8 % of Alberta's gas; low AECO has parked the play.
Roughly 9,000 CBM wells, mostly multi-seam Horseshoe Canyon completions between Calgary and Edmonton, peaked at 0.67 Bcf/d in 2014. Volumes fell 7.7 % in 2024 and the AER no longer reports CBM separately. The resource is large (10–12 Tcf recoverable in the Horseshoe Canyon alone) but needs AECO well above C$3/GJ or CO2-enhanced recovery to attract capital.
1 subsurface asset priced by the Atlas engine: economic value $127B. Move the Scenario Laboratory sliders on the map to reprice.
Plains Coal Measures17.5K Mt in place · recoverable $140B · economic $127B (91% clears break-even)
GEOLOGY: WHAT MAKES A DEPOSIT MORE LIKELY
Methane adsorbed on coal; dry under-pressured Horseshoe Canyon seams need no dewatering, Mannville seams are wet and gassier.
Host formations
Horseshoe Canyon Formation · Mannville Group coals · Ardley coal zone
Depth range
200–1K m
Favourable conditions
Thick stacked seams with high gas content
Dry coals (no saline water disposal)
Existing shallow gas infrastructure to commingle
Prospectivity envelopes on the map (1)
Horseshoe Canyon dry CBM fairwayHighly favourable
Dry (no water) coalbed methane in Upper Cretaceous coal zones · 200–1K m
Horseshoe Canyon coals 200–800 m deep with no formation water
Multi-seam completions commingled with shallow gas
Mannville coals deeper (900–1,400 m) are wet and gassier
Source: AER CBM production statistics.
DATASETS THAT TEST THE TARGET
Stack these layers on the integrated map
Discriminating datasets first, then every catalogued public dataset tagged to this commodity. Verified endpoints draw directly; link-only entries open the publisher page.
Coal mine boundaries (Alberta Energy)Alberta Energy and Minerals · Coal · drawable · verifiedWhere coal has been or is being mined; coal-zone geology itself is published in AGS reports, not as a service.Source ↗
Active producing wells (Alberta Energy Geoview)Alberta Energy and Minerals · Wells · link only · verifiedWhere hydrocarbons are flowing today: live reservoir pressure, produced-water (brine) access, helium-bearing gas streams and infrastructure for re-entry.Source ↗
Bedrock geology of Alberta (Map 600 tiles)Alberta Geological Survey · Bedrock geology · drawable · verifiedWhich formation is at the bedrock surface: the first screen for outcropping targets such as silica sand, limestone, ironstone, bentonite, ammonite shell and shallow coal.Source ↗