Comet Ridge Updates on Mahalo 7 Well in ATP 337P in Queensland

Australia's coal seam gas exploration and production company Comet Ridge Limited provided Monday an operational update on the progress of the Mahalo 7 horizontal surface to in-seam well project in permit ATP 337P in Queensland. The Mahalo 7 horizontal well is being produced in combination with the Mahalo 6 vertical intercept well, via the pump in Mahalo 6.

Since the time of the last operational update in mid-December, the pump speed has been held largely constant while the gas rate has continued to steadily increase over this time. The gas rate has now passed 361,000 standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) and continues to increase. The Production Operator is now implementing a gradual decrease in separator pressure in several stages, before starting up the vertical wells, one at a time, which is likely to commence around the end of this month.

The Company is very pleased with the continuing build in gas rate from this short horizontal well, which is a proof of concept well and therefore is only contacting approximately 1,181 feet (360 meters) of coal. A development style well should be significantly longer, therefore development horizontal wells in this area would be expected to contact significantly more coal with proportionally higher gas rates.

The Mahalo project is located approximately 149 miles (240 kilometers) west of Gladstone in the southern Bowen Basin. The Project is located just 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) from an infrastructure connection to the Gladstone LNG market which has significant gas supply requirements, with three LNG schemes now operating.

Equity participants in ATP 337P Mahalo are Comet Ridge Mahalo Pty Ltd. (40 percent), Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd. (30 percent) and Santos QNT Pty Ltd. (30 percent).