Jade expands drilling programme at TTCBM Project

The 2022 drilling programme has been expanded at Red Lake to include the drilling of Red Lake-7, which will be the second well used for extended and pilot production testing work.

This program has been expanded following a review of the early results demonstrated in the Red Lake area including high gas content and multiple intersections of thick coals in targeted seams of interest. These results lay a strong foundation for extended production testing at Red Lake early next year.

Three exploration targets have been identified along with Red Lake-7, which has been added to the current Red Lake programme and will be drilled as a production well after Red Lake-5. The Vista-1, Brownhill-1, and Steppe-1 exploration wells will be drilled in the eastern portion of the permit.

Vista-1, the first of three exploration wells to be drilled, spudded on 1 August and is currently drilling ahead at 303.5 m. The well is expected to take approximately four weeks to drill and will be extensively cored through the seams of interest to an expected depth of 570 m. Two further exploration wells, Brownhill-1 and Steppe-1, will follow Vista-1 and will complete the exploration component of the CY22 drilling programme.

Red Lake drilling programme progresses

Activities at Red Lake-5, the final well of the 2021/22 drilling programme, have recommenced. The well will be comprehensively evaluated through the target coal seams, which are expected to be intersected at depths between 620 – 700 m, with total depth (TD) expected at around 715 m. The redrill is anticipated to take about six weeks.

Red Lake-5 will be cased with 4.5 in. casing down to a depth of 680 m, just above seam 0, which will be cored and drill stem tested, with the section from 680 – 715 m to be left-open-hole for subsequent completion and extended production testing.

Red Lake-6 reached TD at 543 m and is marked for future use as an observation well. Casing was successfully cemented to 444 m to isolate a fault zone in the upper coal units before the well was cored to TD. Due to the fault intersected in the well, the seam correlation in the area is uncertain and at this stage it is not clear whether target coals were intersected, which is the likely cause of negligible gas content in the well.

A geophysical survey, together with future appraisal wells, will be required to delineate the seams. While the well will not be used for production, the borehole will be used for monitoring of seam pressures during extended and pilot production testing. This pressure data may also assist with understanding seam continuity.

Red Lake-7 will be drilled as part of the CY22 drilling programme and will be located approximately 1.2 km north-east of Red Lake-1. The well will be the second production well in the extended and pilot production testing phase and is expected to take about five weeks to drill. It will be comprehensively evaluated through the target coal seams, which are expected to be intersected at depths between 380 – 560 m. Plans are being progressed to drill Red Lake-7 in mid-2H22, which will enable the well to be production tested with Red Lake-5.

Extended production testing

The extended production test will provide key information on well performance and deliverability to ultimately support assessment of commercial development options. The extended production test is planned to be conducted on both the Red Lake-5 and Red Lake-7 wells, with design and procurement of equipment for this in progress and expected to be delivered and installed in late CY22/early CY23. With the inclusion of the Red-Lake 7 well (replacing Red Lake-6), the company is targeting flow testing to commence early in CY23.

Jade has also confirmed the engagement of well engineering and project management consultants, inGauge Energy, to undertake design work for pilot vertical and horizontal wells for the TTCBM Project.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/cbm/08082022/jade-expands-drilling-programme-at-ttcbm-project/