Walter B. Ayers Jr. is visiting professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering and adjunct professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Texas A&M University. His teaching and research interests include petroleum geology, integrated reservoir studies, clastic depositional systems, and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Coalbed gas has been produced commercially from the northern Appalachian basin since the 1930s and from the San Juan basin since the early 1950s. However, the magnitude and economic significance of coalbed gas resources were realized only in the 1970s [...]
