Strike closes in on gas flows at Jaws-1

ASX-listed Strike Energy has observed encouraging gas surges as it continues to depressurise its ground-breaking Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia.

The company said the sporadic gas surges are consistent with the previous behaviour of the reservoir that resulted in the building desorption front in December last year.

Water production rates are currently between 300 and 400 barrels per day with reservoir pressure currently at about 800 psi, which indicates good productivity from the heavily dewatered area.

Strike added that both electronic submersible pumps are being operated within their design limits, with little or no solids being observed in the water returns at surface.

The company will continue to manage the drawdown to ensure both pump health and controlled depressurisation of the reservoir are maintained.

Strike was required to carry out workover operations on Jaws-1 after a spike in gas flows on 1 January 2019 caused a deposit of sand into the wellbore.

Whilst this set the company’s schedule back, the gas spike is an indicator of the reservoir quality and its potential for future material gas flows.

The broader Jaws project area could host more than 11 trillion cubic feet of gas according to Strike and it benefits from easy access to gas transport infrastructure nearby.

Strike also has a ready buyer for its gas with Orora Limited locking down an option to purchase up to 4.5 petajoules of gas per year from the project for a ten-year period.