Oz Albany-1 Appraisal Well Spuds: Comet

Australian Comet Ridge spudded its Albany-1 appraisal well in the state of Queensland over the weekend and is expecting the drilling operation to take about 25 days, the company said May 21.

The drilling of the Galilee Basin well is the first phase in a farm-out work programme with Vintage Energy. If the appraisal well proves successful, the two companies have about two dozen follow up leads and prospects which they plan to further explore and appraise.

Vintage is funding the first A$3.35mn ($2.52mn) of the drilling cost for the first well to earn a 15% interest in the block. It can also fund half of the second phase program which contains further drilling and seismic acquisition which will see it acquire a further 15% interest.

The Albany-1 is located 220 metres to the southwest of the Carmichael 1 well which was drilled in 1995 and flowed gas at low rates from three intervals. Albany-1 is an appraisal well, rather than an exploration well, because of the structure having already produced gas during the earlier testing.

Comet said earlier in the month that it is engaging with a range of potential gas transporters and customers and believes Galilee gas could be brought relatively quickly into the east coast network to make a material difference to the current tight east coast market.