As an aside, how do you think that coal beds are formed?
Good question. I do not have experience in coal-bed production. I’d be willing to be enlightened.
To my knowledge, coal beds may be recognized as transitioning from moss>peat moss>soft coal>hard coal>low-sulfur coal (PRB?). The presence of methane in any of these is an engineering estimate. While some moss/coal-beds have exhibited evidence of “fossils”, the overall mechanism appears to be temp/press influences within the crust, not specific to “decayed life forms”.
Do you posit that coal beds are a precursor to O&G, given enough time? The argument against that is the O&G production in North Africa...there are no massive attendant coal beds. Qatar? Yemen? Iran?
Given my limited knowledge, I’d posit that there are several tectonic influences in creating the large instances of moss/peat-moss/coal beds throughout the world. It does not equivocate to O&G deposits.