Kimberley started out as a Canning Basin oil company but following disappointing workover programs in its Western Australian permits last year it has evolved in a European-focused coalbed methane company.

The company claims it has the acreage, access to infrastructure and business plan to make a succes of its European venture and directors now want to change Kimberley's name to reflect its new focus. Its operating subsidiary in Europe is already called European Gas Limited.

“The CBM/coal mine methane industry is rapidly expanding in historical coal producing regions of the world that are located close to industrial and domestic gas and electricity markets,” company secretary Craig Ferrier said.

”The board believes that Europe will undergo considerable expansion as seen in North America.”

Gas prices in Europe are roughly in line with US gas prices.

According to Kimberley, about 650GW of new electricity capacity will be needed in Europe over the next 30 years. An additional 350GW is required to replace aging infrastructure. More than half of new capacity will be gas-fired, the company said

In mid-November, the company released a report next week outlining an estimated potential of several hundreds of billion cubic feet of P1 gas reserves in its Bleue Lorraine coalbed methane project area in northeastern France.

Occupying a combined area of 68 sqkm, the Saint Avold prospect has been estimated to contain 414.9 billion cubic feet of in-place gas, while Alsting has the potential for 576.3 billion cubic feet.

“Due to the high level of reliability of the data used for GIP (gas in place) calculations and examination of analogous coal basins - such as the northern Bowen Basin in Australia – the company expects that over 50% of the resource can be commercially discovered,” the company said.

Kimberley is earning a 75% interest in the 460-sqkm Lorraine permit, granted in November last year. It said the permit, which occupies a large part of the Lorraine Basin, has historical coal production totalling over 850 million tonnes.

“The coal seams within the permit are of Carboniferous age and are characterised as black, gassy, high ranking coals,” the company said.

In addition, the company has applied for a further 528 sqkm of acreage neighbouring the permit and covering the southern extensions of the Lorraine Basin.

The company is gearing up to begin pilot project drilling in this Lorraine Basin permit about 150km west of Strasbourg by the first quarter of next year.

Kimberley has also applied for several Italian CBM permits.