Cutting costs with coalbed gas.

• Author: Tyson, Ray
• Position: Alaska's coalbed methane reserves; Lapp Resources

With half of the country's known coal, Alaska owns immense wealth in coalbed methane reserves. The resource could dramatically cut heating costs in rural Alaska. The only catch: Can anyone bring this natural gas to market? Here's one independent Alaska operator who wants to try, hoping he can pave the way for other small producers to work in the state.

After four years of hard work, Dave Lappi is on the brink of becoming Alaska's first commercial producer of coalbed methane, an abundant but unproven natural gas resource that could be a practical solution to the state's rural energy needs.

"Alaska contains about half of the known U.S. coal reserves, so we have a huge potential here for producing gas from coal," notes Lappi, president of Lapp Resources, one of Alaska's few independent exploration and production companies.

Lappi was planning to drill three coalbed methane wells this summer to serve residents of Houston, a small community located in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley about 60 miles north of Anchorage.

And if the Houston project is successful, Lappi says he intends to launch similar ventures in more remote Alaska communities, many of which depend on expensive imported diesel for their energy requirements.

"The Houston project is really designed to work the bugs out of the technology, to see if we can actually produce at commercial rates," Lappi adds.

After the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) granted Lapp Resources the go-ahead for the project in July, AOGCC chairman Dave Johnston complimented Lappi on his efforts, noting the obvious lack of independents in Alaska's high-cost drilling environment.

"Not only could this be a viable source of energy for small communities," Johnston says, "but it also could attract independents here to carve out a niche in the Alaska (gas) market. If it (Houston) proves up, other people like Lappi might gain some confidence. He's a very serious businessman and has lots of experience."

Experience Counts

Lappi also is no newcomer to Alaska or the Mat-Su Valley. He was six years old when he and his family moved here in 1959. His father was project superintendent at the Eklutna Power Plant. Lappi attended elementary school in Palmer and junior and senior high schools in Anchorage before moving on to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he earned a bachelor's degree in geology.

From 1974 to 1977, Lappi worked on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline as a field engineer and geologist for R&M...