Comet Ridge Ltd., Brisbane, has been awarded a new exploration permit in the Bowen basin of Queensland adjacent to the company’s Mahalo East and Mahalo Far East projects in Australia.
The company has been granted Authority to Prospect (ATP) 2072 over tender block PLR2023-1-1. The 66 sq-km block, to be called Mahalo Far East Extension, lies immediately north of Mahalo East and west of Mahalo Far East, about 85 km southeast of Emerald. The southern portion sits over the Mahalo Gas Hub fairway and is expected to be a source of future production wells for the Mahalo Hub development plan.
The block does not contain any Queensland Government domestic market supply obligations, so natural gas from the permit could be sold into domestic or LNG markets.
“This new area at Mahalo Far East Extension will offer additional gas production capacity to feed in after Mahalo North (operator, 100%) and the Mahalo JV development (Santos Ltd.-operated, Comet Ridge 57%) commence gas production,” said Comet Ridge managing director Tor McCaul.
Comet Ridge holds Mahalo East (ATP 2061) and Mahalo Far East (ATP 2063) in the northeast as feed-in blocks. A pilot scheme is expected to begin at Mahalo East later this year, with funding received from the Queensland Government’s Frontier Gas Exploration Program.
