AsianOil: Comet wins CBM block in Queensland

Australian independent Comet Ridge has been awarded a new coal-bed methane (CBM) exploration block by the Queensland State government.
Comet said on May 10 that the 338-square km authority to prospect (ATP) 2063, which will now be called Mahalo Far East, was one of two the state government had assigned to the company in September 2020 under preferred tenderer status.
Comet was awarded a 100% stake in Mahalo Far East, which is located north-east of the Mahalo Gas Project (MGP), for an initial term of six years.
Comet owns a 40% stake in the MGP, which is located inside the northern part of ATP 1191 and consists of petroleum leases (PLs) 1082 (Humboldt) and 1083 (Mahalo). Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) has a 30% stake in the project, while Santos owns the remaining 30%.
Comet said Mahalo Far East contained coals that were generally deeper and had notably higher gas content than the main Mahalo high production fairway. These characteristics are expected to add a “very significant” amount of gas in place volume to the company’s Mahalo Hub area portfolio.
Mahalo Far East’s award follows that of Mahalo North (ATP 2048) in April 2020 and Mahalo East (ATP 2061) in September 2020. Comet holds 100% of the two licences, which cover a combined area of 885 square km.
Commenting on the newly awarded ATP 2063, Comet managing director Tor McCaul said that combining the development of the Mahalo Hub area blocks would provide greater efficiency and economies of scale, as well as a material injection of gas into the East Coast market.
Mahalo Far East also contains conventional gas targets beneath the coals, with Comet noting that appraisal work on the block’s coal-bed methane (CBM) resources would also look at the deeper targets’ gas potential.