The Mahalo East pilot flow package in place with wellhead and pump drive equipment on the left, the gas-water separator centre-right and the water storage tank and flare stack in the background. Credit: Comet Ridge.

Comet Ridge has announced the start-up of the Mahalo East Pilot production scheme late last week.

The Mahalo East 1 (ME1) vertical and Mahalo East 2 (ME2) lateral wells were successfully drilled in October and November last year.

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The ME2 lateral well intersected the ME1 vertical well, drilling a total of 1,338m of coal.

During the pilot production testing stage, the reservoir fluid (water and natural gas) will flow from the natural coal fractures along the ME2 lateral well and subsequently enter the ME1 vertical well.

The water will be lifted to the surface through a downhole pump, while the gas will also flow up the well.

Comet Ridge has also reported that the gas desorption phase of the laboratory analysis on the core taken from the ME1 vertical well is nearing completion, with substantial gas volumes detected as desorbing from the coal samples.

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In late November last year, a completion rig was employed to install production tubing and a downhole progressive cavity pump into the ME1 well for lifting water.

The production separator, flare and metering skid were relocated from the Mahalo North pilot area and installed on the ME1 well pad.

Additionally, a temporary lined ring tank was set up to collect and manage the produced water.

Both wells received support from the Queensland Government’s Frontier Gas Exploration Grants programme, with Comet Ridge receiving A$5m ($3.11m) in funding.

In December 2024, the Mahalo Joint Venture project reached a key milestone with approval to begin the front end engineering design (FEED) phase.

Comet Ridge is set to work alongside Santos on the upstream FEED process to finalise the work programme and schedule in the weeks ahead.