Comet Ridge: Mira Drilling Programme Successful (Australia)

Following the recent series of Mira drilling announcements, coal seam gas explorer Comet Ridge, announced that the four pilot wells recently drilled at its Mira field pilot project in ATP 337P, have shown consistent coal thickness and good coal productivity, confirming Joint Venture (JV) plans to operate two pilot schemes in the block. 

Completion operations have already commenced on the Mira wells to install pumps and tubing and set the wells up for production, so that the Mira pilot scheme can be brought on line soon after the Mahalo pilot, 13 km to the northwest of Mira.

The Mahalo pilot drilling results from 2012 and the Mira pilot drilling  results recently concluded, demonstrate highly productive and continuous coals across  a large area of the Mahalo block, and confirm the ingredients required for successful pilot testing  and reserves booking are present in both areas of the block.

The objective of both these pilot production projects is to demonstrate commercial gas flows in ATP 337P, with the intention of achieving an early initial reserves certification.

The Mira field is approximately 250 km west of Gladstone in central Queensland.  Mira 2 is the centre well in the Mira pilot scheme and is located approximately 290 metres from each of the three recently drilled Mira pilot wells.  The well reached a total depth of 320 metres, intersecting approximately 9.1 metres of   net coal and was cored through the reservoir section to gain additional data on coal parameters.

Mira 2 is also the fourth well in an eight-well programme for the Mahalo Joint Venture that commenced in mid-December 2012. Four step-out core holes will now be drilled, to further extend the area available for booking reserves in the Mahalo block. The first of these is the Scrubber Gully 2 well which is expected to spud later in the week.

Comet Ridge Managing Director, Tor McCaul said that the coals across the north of the Mahalo block have now been shown to be very productive via the eight pilot wells that have been drilled in the Mahalo and Mira fields.  The four Mahalo field wells were completed for production during December, while completion operations on the Mira field pilot wells are currently underway, with that work expected to be concluded by the end of this month.  Construction of production facilities has commenced at the Mahalo field and will then move to the Mira field so the Mira pilot will be operational soon after the Mahalo pilot. He said that after much subsurface technical work over a number of years, the Joint Venture had entered an exciting new phase which is focussed on producing commercial quantities of gas to enable reserves to be certified.

Comet Ridge currently has a 35% interest in ATP 337P Mahalo, having divested a 5% interest in the asset to Stanwell Corporation Limited in an agreement announced in September 2011. Under the terms of that agreement, Stanwell Corporation Limited will fund Comet Ridge’s expenditure for the Mahalo field and Mira field pilot schemes. The agreement also gives Stanwell Corporation an option to purchase half or all of Comet Ridge’s equity in the Mahalo block, based on 2P reserves booked.

Equity participants in ATP 337P Mahalo are Comet Ridge Mahalo Pty Ltd 35%, Stanwell Corporation   Limited 5% (with an option to increase), Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd 30% and Santos QNT Pty Ltd 30%.

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LNG World News Staff, January 21, 2013; Image: Comet Ridge