The Mungi-22 well consists of three lateral wells intersecting the Mungi-22 vertical well on two separate seams.

A total of 1120m of horizontal hole was drilled in coal with seam thicknesses ranging from 2.3-3.5m.

Molopo will now have a completion pump installed at the well with de-watering scheduled to start in May and initial gas flow results expected in June.

All gas production from this development trial well will be sold as part of Molopo's existing gas offtake contract.

The company added it was confident of attempting longer lateral wells after gaining the needed experience from drilling Mungi-22.

Drilling performance times had continually improved throughout the trial well and several fault intersections were successfully negotiated, demonstrating a repeatable ability to deal with structural features within the coal.

Molopo has started operations at Molopo-20, the first of two longer triple lateral design wells in the northern portion of the Mungi field.

Molopo will have a 100% share of the production increase from these wells, while owning a 50% of the gas field in general.

Its other partners are Anglo Coal (25.5%) and Mitsui Moura Investment (24.5%).

Anglo is the operator for the permits but Molopo is operator for this trial development program.