Australian oil and gas exploration company TMK Energy Limited has provided an update on its ongoing Pilot Well Program — and exploration activities in the Gurvantes XXXV CSG Project area in Mongolia — which is a collaboration between TMK and Talon Energy.
The program has continued to meet its targets as there is currently continuous methane gas flow to the surface, with gas being flared from each of the project’s three pilot wells.
Throughout September, the Lucky Fox – 1 and Lucky Fox – 2 pilot wells have shown consistent performance, delivering good water rates and increasing gas rates.
Lucky Fox – 3 faced pump shutdowns due to the discovery of coal solids in the water but this issue has been resolved and the well is now performing optimally.
The total production rates from all wells currently range between 500 to 600 barrels of water per day (bwpd), which is a decrease from a peak of approximately 630 bwpd.
Gas production has been on the rise as a result of the decrease in reservoir pressure, however, it is still too early to establish ultimate flow rates.
TMK Energy Limited CEO Brendan Stats stated that the current primary focus of the company is to continue to keep the three pilot wells running as near to 100 per cent of the time as possible with the aim of establishing gas flow rates to demonstrate commerciality.
“Despite the minor operational challenges associated with the pump at Lucky Fox – 3, our team is doing a great job keeping the wells running and remediating any issues quickly and efficiently,” said Stats.
Following the join exploration program announcement made on 28 August 2023 with Terra Energy, three cored exploration wells have been completed.
The first two — TU23_002C and TU23_003C — intersected multiple coking coal intervals with a net coal thickness between five to 10 metres and testing for CSG potential was not conducted on these wells.
BHN23_002C, the third well, intersected a coal thickness of approximately 45 metres and preliminary tests suggested moderate to high gas contents.
“Encouragingly, we have also intersected a thick gassy coal seam at Terra Energy’s Baruun Noyon Uul area in the east of the Project area, 100 kilometres east of Narrin Sukhait. No CSG exploration drilling has previously been undertaken in the Terra area and the results to date have given us the confidence to continue with an expanded program.
“What is most significant is that we have intersected thick gassy coal seams in both the west of the Gurvantes project and now the eastern portion, in what is interpreted to be the same geological formation, approximately 100 kilometres apart,” said Stats.
Due to these promising results, the exploration program will expand to include four more cored wells and is expected to be completed this year.
The 2D seismic acquisition began in late September, with field data collection to be completed in October.
Additional exploration is also underway in the northern part of the area, which is adjacent to an existing coal mine.
Depending on the results, further exploration may be pursued in 2024.
Terra Energy Executive Director Matthew Crawford said: “Terra is pleased to be working with TMK and adding significant value to our respective businesses. To date the exploration has been done efficiently and effectively with our respective exploration teams working well together. Terra is very supportive of this project, and we look forward to expanding the exploration activities in 2024 as we have a substantial resource area of coal which is yet to be explored for CSG.”
