Botala keeps the drill tempo going with spud of second pilot well at Serowe

Botala has spudded its second pilot well soon after flowing gas to surface at Serowe-3.1
Drilling is now underway on Serowe-3.3, the second of four wells that the company is completing as part of Project Pitse
Drilling of the final two wells likely to be ticked off by Christmas

Botala continues to progress the pilot production program at its Serowe coal bed methane project in Botswana with the spudding of the second pilot well.

Since farming into Serowe in 2020, Botala has kept up with a constant pace of activity at the CBM project and moved to 70% ownership.

During this time, Botala Energy (ASX:BTE) added six wells to the single well drilled by the previous operator and defined a certified best estimate (2C) Contingent Resource of 317 billion cubic feet of gas at the project.

This represented a significant milestone as it is enough to fuel Botswana’s existing gas power station at Orapa for about 20 years.

But it is also just an opening volley from the company as it is based on just five of the seven wells drilled to date, which themselves cover only a small part of the project.

More recently, the company successful flowed gas to surface at the Serowe-3.1 well at a rate of 42,000 standard cubic feet of gas per day – a sign that the coals at the well location have reached their desorption pressure point, resulting in the release of a sustainable gas flow.

It has also completed the first pilot well Serowe-3.2 on time and on budget after it intersected 37m of coal within the Serowe, Upper and Lower Morupule coal seams from a depth of 372m.

Next well underway

Drilling is now underway on Serowe-3.3, the second of four wells that the company is completing as part of Project Pitse – the inaugural commercial pilot production program of the Serowe CBM project.

Project Pitse seeks to determine the commercial flow-rate potential within the surrounds of the Serowe-3.1 well and to convert this cluster of five wells into the first commercial production location in that part of the broader 420,000-hectare project.

Three of the four wells will test gas that comes from the Serowe, Upper and Lower Morupule coal seams whilst the fourth well will drill through the Serowe coal seam only, to determine the contribution of gas from this seam.

“It has been a very busy period operationally and the team have had a well-earned break and are ready to get back to drilling,” chief executive officer Kris Martinick said.

“We are very focused on continuing with Project Pitse with a key focus on the Serowe coal seam, which is very prominent in our acreage area along with the lower Morupule coal seams which are more regional.”

Drilling of the remaining two wells will be carried out back-to-back and are likely to be completed before the Christmas period.

This article was developed in collaboration with Botala Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.