Coal-bed methane (CBM) is betwixt and between. It’s a natural gas, but it’s extracted from coal beds. And that’s created a problem in Canada. Who owns the rights to produce CBM on a property—the owners of the coal rights, or the owners of the natural gas rights?
On July 7 Justice C.A. Kent of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench declared that natural gas rights holders are entitled to produce CBM. The decision is the first by a Canadian court in the long-standing dispute. The plaintiffs have appealed, but if Kent’s ruling is upheld, it will end litigation that has been going on since 2004.
