Mountain Fuel Supply Company is a publicly-owned, gas-utility company with extensive natural gas production, pipeline, and distribution facilities in Utah and Wyoming. Through its subsidiary Mountain Fuel Resources, an active research program is being conducted under which various nonconventional sources of pipeline gas are being investigated. As part of this program, a jointly funded project was initiated with the US Department of Energy to show the potential for commercial recovery of methane from deep, unmineable coalbeds. The Book Cliffs coal field located in central Utah was selected as the site of the demonstration project. This coal field is known for its high methane emissions. Numerous projects have been initiated or conducted in this coal field over the past several years. These projects have drilled vertical wells as well as horizontal boreholes from within existing mines in the area. A Bureau of Mines report noting the locations of high methane concentration coalbeds also mentions the Book Cliffs coal field. Figure 1, which was reproduced from this report, shows the counties in which coalbeds are located that emit in excess of 1 MMcfd of methane into mine ventilation systems. These counties are located in the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, and Ohio in the eastern part of the country, and in Utah and Colorado in the West. The Utah Geological and Mineral Survey has also been conducting extensive studies relative to the methane production from Book Cliffs coals. Since 1975, they have been measuring the methane content of core samples. Data have been accumulated from over 200 core samples. Methane contents ranging up to 350 scf/ton have been reported.