State Gas Ltd., Brisbane, found early success in its Rougemont-1 exploratory coal seam gas well in the 100%-owned ATP 2062 permit in the Bowen basin of central Queensland.
The well reached total target depth of 800 m, intersecting 8 m of net coal in Bandanna coal measures.
Well logs confirm the coal was encountered in a number of seams, the top seam encountered at 495 m depth and the thickest measuring 2.2 m—consistent with nearby Bandanna CSG projects at Arcadia Valley (Santos-GLNG) and Mahalo (Santos-APLNG-Comet Ridge).
Gas was seen bubbling from core samples taken from the coal seams. Further testing is underway.
Richard Cottee, executive chairman, said the early result justifies the company’s decision to compete for new acreage in the region and strengthens the view that Bandanna coals will be developed synergistically with the company’s 100%-owned Reid’s Dome gas discoveries in production licence PL-231 to the southwest.
Conventional gas was found at Reid’s Dome in 1955, but it wasn’t until 2018 that State Gas drilled the first CSG well (Nyanda-4) into the structure and found gas in the Reid’s Dome coal measures. The discovery was confirmed in 2019 with Aldinga East-1A and Serocold-1.
Rougemont-1 is the first of a two-well program in ATP2062 to evaluate the Bandanna coals in the eastern arm of the permit awarded to State Gas late in 2020.
Both the Rougemont and Reid’s Dome wells are close to existing gas pipelines and can be quickly linked to eastern Australian markets.