Real Energy advances to flow test Windorah gas wells

Oil and gas explorer Real Energy (ASX: RLE) is on track to begin flow testing two wells at its flagship Windorah gas project in Queensland, with hopes of proving commercial flow rates and establishing pilot production to meet Australia’s east coast gas demand.

The Cooper Basin-focused junior today reported the completion of a three-stage fracture stimulation of its Tamarama-2 well, located in the company’s wholly-owned exploration permit ATP 927P.

This follows last week’s news that a four-stage stimulation of the Tamarama-3 well had been completed.

Real Energy said it was currently using a coil tubing unit to clean out the latest well and then expects to complete both wells shortly with production tubing prior to carrying out the flow back.

According to the company, about 5300 barrels of frack fluid was pumped and about 214,000 pounds of proppant were injected into the formations over the course of the Tamarama-2 operations alone.

Given the large volume of fluid, flowback operations were still “a few weeks” away.

“Flow testing [will] commence once most of the frack fluids are recovered from the formations,” Real Energy stated.

The two wells are in close proximity to Tamarama-1, which was the first well to be drilled on the prospect and has been flowing gas since 2016.

The objective of the fracking program was to prove commercial gas flow from the wells.

The company had applied “alignment flow technology” to design the wells in a way that is expected to enhance productivity through an improved alignment between the hydraulic fracture and the wellbore.

In the event of success, Real Energy has said it will look to establish pilot production and connect flow lines for sales gas to be supplied into Australia’s east coast gas market.

The company believes the Windorah gas project has the potential to meet this east coast demand, with prospective resources estimated at 13.7 trillion cubic feet of gas-in-place.