Page 12 - AsianOil Week 43 2021

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Comet Ridge makes headway at

Queensland CBM project

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIAN junior Comet Ridge has begun that “good quality” coal samples had been recov-
COMPANIES drilling a dual lateral well at its Mahalo North ered for analysis.
coal-bed methane (CBM) development in The Mahalo North 1 well intercepted a net
Queensland. coal package of 9.03 metres in total, with the
The Mahalo North 2 well was spudded on Castor coal reservoir sitting right on top of the
October 26 following the successful completion Pollux coal reservoir, forming one thick reser-
of the Mahalo North 1 vertical well on October voir package of slightly under seven metres. The
23, Comet said. The independent operates the company said the results would provide an “ideal
Mahalo North project, which lies in ATP 2048, target” for the Mahalo North 2 dual lateral well.
with a 100% interest. A short downhole flow test with an elec-
Mahalo North 2 is designed to intersect as tric-line logging tool allowed the Castor-Pollux
many natural fractures as possible, delivering to flow for a short time into the wellbore, meas-
two long production sections that can provide uring permeability of 250 millidarcies.
the greatest amount of water and gas production Comet said: “This compares very favour-
per unit of well cost. ably to some of the better results measured in
The well has been drilled to 42 metres, with the Mahalo block pilot areas, to the south and
casing cemented in place. Comet intends to south-east.”
continue drilling once well control equipment The company added: “Coal recovered at sur-
has been installed, angling the drilling assembly face from the coring operations was noted to be
to bore towards a target coal seam that lies at a vigorously bubbling gas before being placed in
depth of around 250 metres. a variety of canisters for lab analysis, which will
Comet noted that the drilling assembly would take a few months to complete.”
be boring almost horizontally at this point, steer- The well reached a total depth of 314 metres.
ing east-north-east with the objective of intersect- Comet managing director Tor McCaul
ing Mahalo North 1. Drilling will continue further said: “The data obtained from Mahalo North
out towards the east-north-east to maximise the 1 endorses the very detailed geomodel which
amount of coal intersected. A second lateral well- Comet Ridge has built based on coal bore and
bore will then be drilled, originating off the first seismic data processed in this area. Importantly,
lateral wellbore in a more northerly direction. the permeability measured in this well is at
Mahalo North 2 is being drilled using the the high end of our predictions, based on our
Silver City Rig 23, which was also used to bore Mahalo Gas Project experience, and confirms
Mahalo North 1. The vertical well encountered our high expectations for the expanded Mahalo
both “very positive” coal thickness and reservoir Gas Hub and the extension of the high-quality
permeability, Comet said on October 25, noting fairway.”™

Empire, APA to explore NT shale gas pipeline

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIAN shale developer Empire Energy APA, meanwhile, has also pitched a “staged
COMPANIES has teamed up with pipeline operator APA and incremental development approach” for
to study the development of infrastructure to the Beetaloo Sub-basin, allowing the company
export gas and liquids from the former’s fields in to leverage its network to reduce the “required
the Northern Territory. initial capital investment and align the pace of
The two companies signed a memorandum upstream development”.
of understanding (MoU) to explore opportuni- The infrastructure operator currently has
ties for APA to build, own and operate (BOO) both a northern and an eastern strategy to
the gas and liquids gathering, production, unlock Beetaloo’s shale gas potential.
processing and transportation infrastructure, The northern plan envisions expanding
Empire said on October 27. the Amadeus Gas Pipeline through additional
The developer added that the two had agreed gas compression, with Empire noting that this
to promote a “common user” model for the approach would augment the NT government’s
infrastructure development, with this expected plans to support Darwin’s gas-fed manufacturing
to drive economies of scale benefits and lower industry as well as supply an expansion of the terri-
cost per unit charges. tory’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 28•October•2021