European Gas Ltd., Perth, is drilling a second well after reporting “highly encouraging results” from its first coalbed methane stratigraphic well on the St. Avold portion of the Bleue Lorraine Permit in northeastern France.
Meanwhile, European Gas was awarded Bleue Lorraine Sud, a 528 sq km permit contiguous to the south, for five years, said Gilbert Clark, European Gas manager for France. He said, “The acreage covers the same coal sequences as Bleue Lorraine.”
The Folschviller-1 directional well went to TD 1,306 m and cored the Westphalian D coal-bearing sequence from 705 m to TD. The well encountered 60 m of coal in four seams each more than 10 m thick.
The company reported gas content of 9.5 cu m/ton and permeability of up to 2.8 md, higher than expected. The coal is likely to be able to sustain gas flow at this drillsite, it said.
The well is just east of the town and coal mine named Folschviller. The mine, in operation 30 years and considered exceptionally gassy, was closed in 1979. European Gas spud the second well, at Diebling on the Alsting portion of the permit 20 km northeast of Folschviller-1, in November 2006. The first well confirmed that the Westphalian D coals are mostly analogous to and thicker than the Hartshorne coals in the Arkoma basin in eastern Oklahoma.
The 460 sq km Bleue Lorraine Permit is near the border with Germany and 55 km southeast of the border with Luxembourg. European Gas is drilling on a farmout from Heritage Petroleum PLC, London. In late 2005, the companies estimated gas in place on 15% of Bleue Lorraine at 992 bcf.