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L&M begins major 9-well CSG programme in Southland
16 April 2009 - Wellington-based petroleum explorer L&M Petroleum Ltd plans a major 2009 coal seam gas drilling programme of up to nine wells in the Western Southland Basin of the South Island.
L&M Petroleum said it plans to begin the first phase of the programme with drilling three cored wells in the Takitimu south trend with the drilling of Bogle-1 around the end of March
This will be followed by the back-to-back drilling of the Mt Linton-1 and Belmont-1 wells.
The wells are designed to further evaluate the Beaumont Formation coals previously encountered in the Goodwin-1 and Wairaki-1 wells.
In addition, one stratigraphic well, the Princhester Strat-1 well, will be drilled to confirm the presence of Beaumont coals in the Takitimu north trend.
The Goodwin-1 well, drilled in 2008 recovered 11 m of Beaumont coal with desorption analysis indicating that coals in the Goodwin area are oversaturated with gas containing up to 4.42 m3 of methane gas per tonne of coal.
The Wairaki-1 well encountered 3 m of Beaumont coal with gas desorption analysis on the cores recovering up to 1.25 m3 of methane gas per tonne of coal.
L&M Petroleum said it will also accelerate the second phase of the company’s CSG drilling in the third quarter of 2009, instead of participating in a Californian well.
This phase will see an appraisal well, Meadow Creek-1, drilled to further evaluate the Beaumont coals encountered within the Goodwin-1 area and up to four stratigraphic wells being drilled to confirm the presence of Beaumont coals within the Longwoods area of the company’s PEP 38226 (Waiau).
L&M Petroleum said the market for natural gas in New Zealand remains extremely buoyant due to declining production from offshore fields, trading at approximately NZ$6/GJ.
South Island coal seam gas resources will likely be used to provide thermal power generation to address the substantial power generation shortfalls experienced on the South Island in New Zealand over the last few years.
At the annual meeting L&M Petroleum said that despite the worldwide economic downturn, the company is in a strong financial position with no debt and NZ$9.4 million dollars in funds available to undertake its 2009 programme.
Sources: L&M Petroleum and Lindsay Clark
