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Abstract In cooperation with Tiffany Gas Company, Terra Tek cored the Fruitland Formation coal, lying at approximately 3100 feet, in the Glover Well #1 drilled in the southeast quarter of Section 2, T32N, R6W, Archuleta County, Colorado, within the northern portion of the San Juan Basin. The coal was fully water saturated. Laboratory tests were performed on the recovered cores and reservoir engineering tests within the coal before and after underreaming. Production data indicates the need to treat the coal with a deeply penetrating fracture to achieve acceptable gas production. penetrating fracture to achieve acceptable gas production. However, coal fines migration is a serious problem to maintaining high production. Introduction In-place methane in excess of 186 trillion cubic feet (tcf) is estimated to exist within unmineable coalbeds (depths greater than 3,000 feet) in the forty-eight lower states. Over ninety percent of the coal in this category is found in the five western states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Washington. A large fraction of the gas is adsorbed on internal coal surfaces and pressure must be reduced for it to desorb. For water saturated coal, water must be produced to lower pressure and thereby to initiate produced to lower pressure and thereby to initiate desorption. Production of methane from coal for the gas industry is in its infancy; information regarding reservoir characteristics to assist in the establishment of well completion techniques, well spacing, and evaluation of coalbed methane production economics is totally unavailable. production economics is totally unavailable. Under the Gas Research Institute (GRI) funding, Terra Tek in cooperation with Tiffany Gas Company performed a field test program in the Fruitland performed a field test program in the Fruitland Formation coal to provide specific knowledge on resource potential and characteristics at a selected site and to identify a well completion technique. The paper summarizes the experience gained in the performance of this project. Tiffany Gas Company, a company formed to recover gas from coal, was planning to drill a well to the Cretaceous, Fruitland Formation coals, in the northern San Juan Basin and agreed to provide Terra Tek access to their well. Teaming provide Terra Tek access to their well. Teaming with Tiffany Gas provided the added benefit of working with a company whose purpose was to commercially produce gas from coal. This allowed for production history data to be obtained beyond the production history data to be obtained beyond the immediate duration of the research program. The well, Glover Well #1, is located in the southeast quadrant of Section 2, T32N, R6W, Archuleta County, Colorado, in a region considered to be a prime target area for recovery of occluded gas; see Figure 11. The site location is immediately north of the small community of Allison, Colorado, and a few miles outside the present limits of proven natural gas production from the Cretaceous sandstones. The target was a medium volatile bituminous coal at a depth of approximately 3100 feet with a net thickness of 25 feet. Reservoir pressure was 1500 psi and the temperature 120 deg. F. SITE EXPLORATION The Pictured Cliffs sandstone, underlying the Fruitland Coal Formation (see Figure 2), was deposited during the final retreat of the Upper Cretaceous Sea from the San Juan Basin. Immediately shoreward of these sands, widespread coastal swamps paralleled the shoreline and accumulated thick sequences of vegatal material with inter-bedded clastics. The still-stands of the sea are now represented by thick units of Pictured Cliffs sand and thick Fruitland Formation coals in the northeast part of the San Juan Basin. Contours for the top of the Pictured Cliffs sandstone, as deduced from geophysical logs in the vicinity of the Glover Well #I, are shown in Figure 3. Note that the well is anticipated to be at the base of a shallow syncline. The expected gross thickness of coal within the lower 100 feet of the Fruitland Formation is shown in Figure 4. P. 417