State Gas Ltd., Brisbane, has begun drilling the first well at its Rolleston West coal seam gas project in the Bowen basin of southeast Queensland.
Rougemont-1 is the first of two wells that will evaluate the prospective Bandanna coal seams in permit ATP 2062, which was awarded to the company late last year.
The well, on the crest of a plunging nose in the Bandanna formation, has a planned total depth of 800 m and expects to intersect the coals at 500-780 m depth.
Elsewhere the Bandanna coals are commercially viable in the Santos-Gladstone LNG group’s Arcadia Valley production and are the main play in Comet Ridge’s Mahalo development.
State Gas’ two-well program is designed to confirm coal thickness, permeability, and gas content in the license.
After initial evaluation is complete, the wells will be suspended prior to production testing.
