Yesterday, the company said its wholly-owned subsidiary, European Gas, had applied for permits at Lons le Saunier, near the Swiss border, and a 528 square kilometre extension of its Bleue Lorraine Sud permit in north-east France.

Lons le Saunier is in the Stephanien coal basin, where coal mining was stopped in the 1960s becasue of fears over the risks associated with its high CBM levels, Kimberley said.

The application's area of 3,740 square kilometres covers most of the coal basin.

Kimberley Oil said it was not currently possible to quantify the gas within the basin, but the volume was least as large as the Lorraine Basin in north-east France, which has a gas-in-place resource of more than five trillion cubic feet.

Once the permit was granted, initial work would involve stratigraphic drilling targeting known coals in seams up to six metres thick, with net coals of up to 15m from 950m deep, the company said.

At Bleue Lorraine Sud, European Gas has applied for a 528sq km continuous extension of the permit.

The application extended south and west of the area and, if granted, would increase the company’s holdings by 40% to about 1350sq km.

“Within the extension area the basin thickens with the Westphalien coals generally below 1500m,” company secretary Craig Ferrier said.

"However, several regional fault blocks have elevated the coal measures to shallower depths and these features should have good coalbed methane potential."

Work at Bleue Lorraine will focus on two main anticlinal structures highlighted by previous work, including drilling and seismic.

The extensions are known to hold high CBM concentrations in Kimberley’s permits north of Bleue Lorriane, the company said.

Kimberley also has a CBM operation at the Sulcis permit south-west of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.

Kimberley is in the process of selling its Canning Basin, Western Australia oil fields to Canadian company Golden Dynasty in order to concentrate its resources on French CBM exploration and production.