Australia's Comet Ridge pens gas pipe MoU with Jemena

Australian gas producer Comet Ridge on May 12 announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with infrastructure company Jemena to collaborate on constructing a pipeline to transport gas from its Mahalo North project in Queensland.

Under the agreement, Jemena will undertake a pre-FEED (front end engineering design) study to build and operate a high-pressure gas transmission pipeline, spanning around 73 km, from the Mahalo North gas project to Jemena's Queensland Gas Pipeline (QGP).

In November 2022, Comet Ridge announced the independent certification of 43 petajoules of 2P reserve and 110 petajoules of 3P reserve of natural gas for Mahalo North. The company plans to put these gas reserves into production as quickly as possible, leveraging the newly formed partnership with Jemena to provide the necessary infrastructure to move the gas to the market.

Additionally, this infrastructure would also unlock value in Comet Ridge’s other 100% owned acreage, including Mahalo East, which has independently certified 31 petajoules of 2C and 122 petajoules of 3C contingent resource.

Comet Ridge in January teamed up with Denison to undertake an engineering study for an upgrade of the latter’s infrastructure to process gas from the Mahalo North project.

“The pre-FEED study with Jemena is being run in parallel with the previously announced joint study with Denison Gas, which provides for a potential earlier (westerly) route to market for Mahalo North gas, although at a lower gas rate and for a shorter-duration,” said Comet Ridge managing director Tor McCaul. “This additional work with Jemena, on a longer and potentially larger diameter pipeline, is complementary to the work with Denison.”

Comet Ridge's Mahalo gas hub project comprises Mahalo gas project, Mahalo North, Mahalo East and Mahalo Far East.