How does the Department of Energy administer CBM tenure on Crown-owned land?
• The Petroleum and Natural Gas Tenure Regulation governs CBM. There is no regulatory distinction between conventional natural gas and CBM land tenure. • The amendment to Section 67 of the Mines and Minerals Act by the Energy Statutes Amendment Act, 2003 confirms that the right to the natural gas in Crown coal, including coalbed methane, does not belong to the lessee of the Crown coal rights and, when read in conjunction with section 4(2)(b) of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Tenure Regulation, by implication or inference grants that right to CBM to the petroleum and natural gas lessee. • In Alberta, the right “to win, work and recover” CBM is granted under a conventional petroleum and natural gas lease. A Crown coal lease does not grant the right to recover natural gas, except for safety or conservation reasons as outlined in section 67 (1) and (2) of the Mines and Minerals Act.
