Comet Ridge’s gas production phase has started at the Mahalo North pilot scheme after successful production tests at the site.
This follows the company announcing the Mahalo North 1 well recently seeing a considerable increase in gas pressure inside the casing annulus.
That gas pressure was bled off through the surface production facilities and used to commission the flare system which is now fully operational.
As the testing continues, a steady and gradually increasing flow of gas from the well is anticipated to be ascertained.
The future production of these coals is predicted to be prolific as a result of the arrival of desorbed gas into the well, in conjunction with the significant water rates achieved, which verify the quality of the reservoir.
Gas critical desorption pressure (CDP) has been reached by bringing the reservoir pressure progressively down during the first phase of the test from mid-January, which was designed for controlled de-watering to ensure the reservoir integrity was maintained.
The coal reservoir has now started to evolve gas into the natural fractures and will desorb more and more gas as the reservoir pressure is reduced further.
Comet managing director Tor McCaul said that the Mahalo North 1 well has demonstrated positive and promising results.
“The well has continued to perform strongly during the de-watering phase. Now that we have started to desorb gas from the coal, water production will be adjusted as required to further reduce the reservoir pressure to generate more gas,” he said.
“Achieving CDP at a pressure very close to our isotherm lab analysis reinforces the accuracy of our geological models for this area and the quality of the reservoir.
“We will continue to carefully manage the de-watering process which we expect will gradually increase the gas rates.”
Comet’s flagship Mahalo Gas Hub project is located near Gladstone and consists of low-cost, sales spec natural gas blocks.