Ducks all lining up in a row for Strike

The ducks are starting to line up for aspiring Cooper Basin gas producer Strike Energy with some encouraging signs that it may be on a winner with the potentially ground breaking Jaws-1 coal seam gas well in South Australia.

Jaws-1 is currently in the de-watering phase with water flowing at a rate of about 1,100 barrels per day and rising, which is indicative of significant reservoir inflow from the coal seam.

Strike said the reservoir has yet to engage fully as it is running the electric submersible pumps at close to their lowest setting while the fluid column is being reduced at a decreased rate in relation to the increasing water production.

The company proved late last year that the targeted Vu Upper coal seam at its Klebb-1 well behaved like traditional coal seam gas projects after achieving consistent water flow rates and increasing gas rates.

Strike Managing Director Stuart Nicholls said: “The initial water rates from Jaws are very encouraging and, given that productivity continues to rise, we believe that the reservoir is demonstrating performance that supports our view of its potential.”

“The 36m thick Vu Upper coal seam, which is isolated via impermeable siltstones, represents an extraordinary sized resource unto itself and the team are confident of the drawdown plan required to achieve the primary objective of producing commercial flow rates of gas”

The deep, horizontal Jaws-1 well at Strike’s 66.67%-owned Southern Cooper Basin Project is designed to develop gas flows from what would be Australia’s deepest commercial coal seam gas deposit.

If successful, Strike could potentially unlock a massive 11 TCF of gas from the wider Southern Cooper Basin project.

Shareholders will be watching keenly as the de-watering operations unfold at Jaws-1 and the gas starts to flow.

This is going to be interesting.