Comet Ridge gears up for Mahalo East pilot production testing after drilling Mahalo East-2 well

Comet Ridge completes drilling of the Mahalo East 2 lateral well
Well has two laterals in between a block of reservoir coal which could reduce production testing time
Production testing expected to start in early 2025

Special Report: Comet Ridge has successfully completed drilling of the Mahalo East 2 lateral well and is now planning to complete the Mahalo East 1 vertical well with production tubing and downhole pump later this month.

Mahalo East 2 was drilled horizontally to target the ~2.8m thick Aries seam, the shallowest of four coal seams encountered by the first well about 370m to the northwest.

It successfully entered the Aries coal before intersecting Mahalo East 1 vertical well and then drilled further on a north-westerly heading inside the coal seam to drill through its natural fractures, which will provide a pathway for the future production of water and natural gas.

On reaching a heavily fractured zone, a production liner was run in this section and another lateral branch started from closer to the vertical well that travelled slightly more to the north, similar to the design of the Mahalo North pilot.

Having a block of reservoir coal with lined well paths on either side allows dewatering of the coal to occur from both sides of the block simultaneously, which could result in a shorter production test.

Altogether, the lateral well intersected 1338m of coal, which provides Comet Ridge (ASX:COI) with significant exposure to the Aries seam for production testing.

Adding interest, the first three weeks of laboratory monitoring shows strong gas volumes desorbing from coal samples collected from Mahalo East 1, which intersected 7.2m of net coal.

Early analysis also shows gas contents from this eastern side of the Mahalo Hub area look to be slightly higher than the gas contents from the western side, which is in line with the company’s expectations.

Mahalo East has best estimate (2C) contingent resources of 31 petajoules (PJ) of gas and is about 25km east of the company’s Mahalo North pilot, which has proved and probable (2P) reserves of 43PJ.

Drilling of Mahalo East 2. Pic: Comet Ridge

Road to production testing

“It is pleasing to have the drilling component of this project concluded with high quality data and great early gas desorption indications from the ME1 vertical well. We have over 1.3km of production hole drilled in the ME2 lateral well and a successful intercept,” managing director Tor McCaul said.

“This positions the Mahalo East project for a successful production test to underpin an initial reserves booking for the permit to complement the company’s other 100% held acreage and 2P reserves at Mahalo North.

“We expect to commence the production test early in the New Year, once the production tubing and downhole pump are installed in the ME1 well and production equipment and water storage tank are in place.

“ME2 was drilled without the benefit of seismic data. Seismic acquisition will be the final appraisal step, ahead of development and following reserves certification, so that faults can be identified, and longer development lateral wells can be designed.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Comet Ridge, 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.