Comet Ridge’s pilot testing to unlock Mahalo East gas potential

Comet Ridge starts pilot production at its Mahalo East gas project in Queensland
Water to be initially produced through Mahalo East-1 well before gas starts flowing
Mahalo East currently has a 2C contingent resource of 31PJ of gas

Special Report: Comet Ridge will soon have a firm understanding of the commercial potential of its 100% held Mahalo East project in Queensland with the start-up of pilot production.

The company had completed drilling the Mahalo East-1 vertical well and Mahalo East-2 lateral well, which intersected 1338m of the target Aries coal in its horizontal section, in October 2024.

Drilling of both wells was backed by the Queensland Government’s Frontier Gas Exploration Grants Program, which granted $5m to Comet Ridge (ASX:COI) for the drilling program.

COI then installed production tubing and a downhole progressive cavity pump into Mahalo East-1 for lifting water out of the vertical well in November before moving the production separator, flare and metering skid across from the Mahalo North pilot area.

Strong gas volumes have also been observed to be desorbing from the extensive core taken from Mahalo East-1, which is an indicator that Mahalo East will be capable of producing significant quantities of gas.

Pilot production

During the pilot production phase, water and natural gas will flow from the natural coal fractures along the Mahalo East-2 lateral well path into the Mahalo East-1 vertical well.

Water and gas will then flow up to surface inside the well, with the water lifted by the downhole pump.

Success will mean that COI could convert most if not all of Mahalo East’s existing (2C) contingent resource of 31 petajoules into proved and probable reserves, adding to the 195PJ net 2P reserves the Company already holds at its Mahalo Joint Venture Project (COI: 57.14%) and Mahalo North Project (COI: 100%).

Additionally, the gas desorption phase of the laboratory analysis of core is almost complete.

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.