CSG

Eastern Star heads east with corehole drilling

COAL seam methane developer Eastern Star Gas and its partner Gastar Exploration have drilled a successful corehole that confirms an eastward extension of the Bohena coal seam in PEL 238, New South Wales.

Eastern Star heads east with corehole drilling

Eastern Star managing director David Casey said the results of Dewhurst-2, which intersected 18m of coal, were in line with expectations and validated the company's developing model of the permit's geology.

"The outstanding results from the Dewhurst 2 corehole have confirmed that a multi-lateral pilot will be drilled at Dewhurst later this year," he said.

"Seismic data to be acquired around mid-2008 will be utilised, together with the corehole data, to optimise the design of wells drilled at Dewhurst."

Eastern Star plans to shoot 150km seismic program in PEL238 to help finalise the location of future coreholes and design future production pilots.

The company has now started drilling Dewhurst-3, the second corehole of the upgrade program, about 3.5km east of Dewhurst-2.

Under the 2008 program, up to 20 coreholes will be drilled to expand on current reserves in the Bibblewindi and Bohena areas, as well as to evaluate the CSM potential across additional portions of the lightly explored PEL 238 permit.

This is aimed at meeting the Eastern Star's 2P (proved and probable) reserves target of 600 petajoules by 2009 and potential sales commitments of more than 1000PJ under two agreements signed with Macquarie Generation and Babcock & Brown.

As well as the coreholes, the company is proposing to establish four multi-lateral production pilots in May.

The multi-lateral configuration involves drilling two or more lateral wells from a single location, reducing the need for vertical drilling.

Each lateral will intersect vertical wells through which dewatering and gas production will take place.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the energy sector, brought to you by the Energy News Bulletin Intelligence team.

editions

ENB Cost Report 2023

ENB’s latest Cost Report findings provide optimism as investments in oil and gas, as well as new energy rise.

editions

ENB Future of Energy Report 2023

ENB’s inaugural Future of Energy Report details the industry outlook on the medium-to-long-term future for the sector in the Asia Pacific region.

editions

ENB Cost Report 2021

This industry-wide report aims to understand current cost levels across the energy industry

editions

ENB Social Licence Report 2021

In its second year, this research now includes trends and new findings surrounding impacts and responses as the energy industry seeks to secure and maintain a social licence to operate.