Cooper Basin Deep Coal – the New Unconventional Paradigm: Deepest Producing Coals in Australia

Abstract

Up to four years of gas production from Permian coals in the South Australian (SA) sector of the Cooper Basin illustrates their potential value as a sustainable unconventional gas resource. The success of this play is a result of many years of research, laboratory measurements and field trials designed to de-risk the play, following a well-defined road map. Since 2012, production variability has been tested in over 50 wells across the SA Cooper Basin. As an add-on frac stage in conventional gas development wells, coal targets regularly yield incremental reserve that provides an uplift in production and the opportunity to access a new tranche of gas. Production from the coal reservoirs is now accepted as “base business” for the Cooper Basin Joint Venture partners. The key to progressing the play from its earliest inception as a candidate Source Rock Reservoir to a productive reservoir, lies in in a focussed approach to de-risking each economic barrier. These risk factors include frac containment, formation water production, gas composition, permeability, deliverability, completion design and cost. The next steps are to improve the economic viability of deep coal as a stand-alone development. In these first projects, planned for late 2017 - early 2018, both vertical and horizontal well- completions specifically targeting deep coal will be tested for commercial flow rates in an existing productive field