The junior company said on Tuesday that it had changed its focus to CSM and had expanded its staff to cope with the new operations.

Icon said while it has received encouraging results to date from the three wells – Stitch-1, Natasha-1 and Lydia-1 – it may still take several months to determine their commercial significance.

The recent drilling program had found good quality coal and thickness, thus increasing the likelihood of a successful CSM development, Icon managing director Raymond James said.

The three wells penetrated several coal seams within the Jundah and Taroom coal beds along with thick sections of carbonaceous shales.

Icon estimated the area contained between 900 million and 1.25 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas-prospective resource.

But James also said that the area’s commercial potential had not yet been proven and therefore required extended testing and the drilling of new wells to move prospective reserves to commercial proven status.

Testing equipment has been ordered for the wells but it will take 6-8 weeks for this equipment to be delivered from Houston, Texas.

“With strong demand for CBM equipment in Australia, there is a shortage of stock availability,” James said.