Black Warrior Methane CorpPO Box 140 , Brookwood, Alabama, United States

In 1979, Jim Walter Resources, Inc. (JWR) began a pilot program to determine if it was economically feasible to degasify coalbeds in advance of mining.  Originally, five wells were drilled in the area of No. 4 Mine, located near Brookwood, Alabama, for the test.  This pilot project was successful and in 1981 JWR and Enhanced Energy Resources formed the Brookwood Degasification Project as 50/50 partners.     On September 1, 1983, a new company, Black Warrior Methane Corp. was formed to replace Enhanced Energy Resources as Operator of the degasification project. In 1988, Southern Natural Gas bought Enhanced Energy’s half of the company. Today, Black Warrior Methane Corp. is jointly owned by Warrior Met Coal, LLC. and Atlas Resource Partners, L.P.     From the five pilot wells in 1979, Black Warrior now operates nearly 400 wells producing on average 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.  Black Warrior uses three methods for extracting methane from JWR’s coal seams: conventional vertical wells drilled from the surface, underground horizontal drilling used primarily for improving longwall operation, and Gob wells drilled vertically from the surface to drain gas from the area left after longwall mining has taken place.     In addition, Black Warrior Methane Corp. also has a sister company, Black Warrior Transmission Corp., which operates over 30 miles of gas pipeline used to deliver methane gas to two major interstate pipelines.