Real Energy flows gas from its latest Cooper Basin well, lodges pipeline application

Emerging gas developer Real Energy (ASX: RLE) has continued its winning streak in the Cooper Basin after recording strong initial flow rates at its Tamarama-3 well, prompting the company to move forward with its commercialisation plans for the area.

Providing shareholders with an update on the well, the company announced a flow rate of 2.5 million cubic feet a day from initial testing conducted over the weekend.

Real Energy completed a four-stage fracture stimulation program at Tamarama-3 last October, to a depth below 2,300 metres.

The flow test of Tamarama-3 follows on from the recent well stimulation at the Tamarama-2 well where an initial flow rate of 2MMcf/d was clocked.

Both wells are located within the company’s ATP927 permit in south-west Queensland, which is considered very underexplored.

The permit area has been estimated to hold 13.7 trillion cubic feet of gross prospective gas-in-place resources.

Commenting on the initial flow rate at Tamarama-3, Real Energy managing director Scott Brown said the result had boosted confidence levels for the commerciality potential of the project.

“With this result, we have well and truly proven up the Basin Centred Gas model and the results of these two wells bode well for future wells,” he said.

“We have large gas fields, and together with high east coast gas prices, we have the potential to generate significant revenues.”

Moving forward, Real Energy will continue to gather data and other reservoir parameters on Tamarama-2 and 3 with the aim of booking a maiden gas reserves for its flagship Windorah gas project.

The Windorah gas resources are also located in its wholly-owned exploration permit ATP 927P.

The drilling of Tamarama-2 and 3 follows on from the initial discovery well of Tamarama-1 which has flowed gas at variable rates up to 2MMcf per day since 2016.

Windorah pipeline application lodged

Based on the positive flow rates, the company has acted quickly in moving ahead with its commercialisation plans, lodging an application for a pipeline licence between its Tamarama wells and the Santos (ASX: STO)-operated Mt Howitt gas gathering facility.

The decision on the pipeline licence, which rests with the Queensland Government, would give the company the green light to build a pipeline to commercialise its Tamarama wells.

The pipeline would enable Real Energy to feed its raw gas into an existing gas gathering and processing system located just 14 kilometres away from the gas field. The gas will then be processed into sales gas at Moomba for distribution to the east coast gas market.

The company firmed up its Cooper Basin commercialisation strategy last year after inking binding agreements with Santos and Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) to process gas from Windorah.

The company said it would provide investors with further updates on the pipeline application process in due course.

Real Energy’s shares were sitting at $0.085 before market opening.