Senex Energy Limited has sanctioned its first major investment in the Western Surat gas project, committing $50 million to a 30 well drilling campaign, with gas production of around ~0.6 MMboe expected by mid-2018.

Senex Managing Director and CEO Ian Davies said the work program would result in significant gas volumes from drill-ready acreage, and the Company had a clear strategy for project acceleration.

“We have seen immediate gas to surface from the Glenora pilot wells, brought online for continuous production in early February. We have also seen evidence of strong gas flows from wells on the Eos block during rehabilitation works being undertaken on legacy QGC wells. These results demonstrate that coal seams in the Glenora and Eos blocks have already been partially dewatered by neighboring operations.

“The sanctioned work program will further our understanding of the resource to support an accelerated project timeline, with potential to drill, complete and connect another 30 to 50 wells throughout 2018. Under this scenario and subject to regulatory approvals, Senex can seamlessly transition to a development phase targeting gas production of over 16 TJ/day by 2019, equivalent to 1 MMboe per annum23. The recently announced strategic arrangement between Senex and EIG Global Energy Partners will facilitate these plans and support the delivery of material year-on-year volume growth.

“Finally, the 2017 work program will give us the opportunity to fully embed our design, contracting and execution methodologies in order to demonstrate best in class safety and cost performance” he said.

The Glenora and Eos blocks are located in the south-east of the Western Surat gas project, directly north of GLNG’s producing Roma field. Senex has the benefit of significant subsurface data over these blocks given historic appraisal and development, and the offsetting GLNG well data. A pipeline from the Glenora pilot to the GLNG low pressure gathering network was constructed during 2016.

Source: www.worldoil.com