while I was out haying

the wind came up while I was in my 830 cutting hay tonight and when I was going to the house I seen our methane pod building looked like this it was a wind shear or microburst at this time its not leaking gas but the system is live cnt

Well, looks like a pretty good use for a pherd pick-up.
Bryce

The way I remember Wyoming, that would have been a light breeze did this, right?

Nutty: Tell us more about that "methane pod". What is it? How do you produce methane?

They extract it form the coal in the ground.

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methane is a gas produced by the decompisiton of once living matter, here it is coal as we have some of the largest coal veins in the world,it is basicly the same gas as a sewer produces during the breakdown of waste a landfill also makes methane some have drilled wells into the old garbage and it is used to produce electricity for example, here where I live we have right now five wells on my familys minerals, in this county almost 10,000 have been drilled in the last ten-fifteen years the gas burns very clean but does vary in therms some what, it is a lower threm than natural gas found in oil seams, which we have huge reserves of that here also hope this helps guys don't beafraid to ask if you don't understand something I said, one more note and this is in the construction of these fields, I had a pertnership in doing this we used Case equipment in these jobs my 420B backhoe, 580CK, 310F crawler, DH4B trencher were my addition to the cause and my partner had a 580E, 580L and a 550E rubber track dozer, I also still do mantence, work on the wells and pipelines such as grass mowing replanting right of ways and snow removeal I use my 530 and 450 crawler as well as the others I mentioned, the DH4B I paid for in less than 50 hrs putting in electric lines at a dollar a foot and dug a little over 12000ft in that time cnt

We had methane in a water well where we used to live in Illinois. Not a lot of methane, but enough that you could strike a match and get a flame at the water faucet in the house, especially the first thing in the morning. It would come out in a short burst, so we got use to backing away from the bath faucet when we turned it on to avoid a shower of water. We eventually drilled a new well as we were getting small explosions in the well pit from the gas.

I hear that back in the 60's-70's our city water had so much in it you could light it and it would hold a flame, they have since abandoned those wells cnt

John forgot to tell you about the "pod" it is where the gas flows through meter's to measure how much has come thru each well and then a "master " meter to tell how much total goes into the sales line, methane is held in the ground by water as the two do not like each other, as easy way to explain how this works is your "trap" in your sink and toilet this is to keep the "gas" from coming in to your house, it works the same under ground you pump out the water and the gas can flow, hope this makes sence cnt

I guess all in all was kind of dangerous, but I sure liked to see the expressions on the faces of the friends and neighbors when it would ignite.

Case nutty that looks like a metal framed building cant you just bring in a crane and set that building back in place or maybe a trackhoe?

We have oil wells in my area that produce large amounts of gas but for some reason they burn off the gas instead of trying to sell it.

Probably the reason they burn it off is there are no transportation lines to take the gas anywhere which basically makes the gas a waste product because at +/- $4.00 per mmcf the wells aren't producing enough to justify a gathering system and pipeline.

Wasteful as it seems its just bottom line business.

Jim

they sure can but we have to leave it until the insurance company gets pic's this building was prefabed by a real good friend of mine and they did set it with a boom truck, I think their may have been a couple of twisters that you couldn't see as I had hay raked about a half mile from the pod and it looked like you took a snow blower thru it in about three places and left the rest of the windrows intact kinda odd cnt

John, further to Tom's explanaition you may have head of coal bed methane that is what this is I believe. Out west, typically Wyoming, the liberals and environmental groups were fighting this several years ago just like that are fracing techniques in shale methane production today(which has been done in carbonate reservoirs for decades, this IS NOT new techology and if wells are completed correctly is not a hazard, states need to contraol and monitor producers and drilers to make sure the well is completed and the casing cemented correctly).

Coal bed methane production produces a LOT of water which can be treated so that it is safe to put in normal run off streams.

Water produced with oil is salt water and has to be disposed of properly, usually reinjected to keep reservoir pressures up to allow more oil in place to be produced. OK I wil climb down off my soap box but the US population usually only hears the negative views our abundant midia wants the US public to hear. Oil and gas employees millions of people in the United States and around the world. It is still the cheapest for of energy production, renewables and biofuels aren't there yet. If you take government subsidies away from methanol its way more expensive that gasoline. Not saying we shouldn't pursue research in these forms of energy because that is how less expensive ways to do it will be developed but its just not there yet no matter how much Hollywood and the liberals in our government lie to us. Ask the Japanese about nuclear energy now!!

Tom, I hope you worked a deal with the producer when you leased your land to allow you to tap the gas for household use, sure could cut your water heating and winter heating bills.

Jim

beans!!!!!!!!!!

thanks Jim you hit a lot of nail heads and explain it much better than I and yes I do have the right to use all the gas I want for personal use cnt

Good for you, many people don't think to ask this.

Jim

got the rights to the water also even made them buy me a retractable sprinkler but the Gov gets to involved to make it worth my time so I traded it off but I do get to do the matenance work that I want snow removal, mowing dirt work ect is real good money when they pay and there's work LOL