The CSM junior told the market yesterday that it had completed the Mungi-22La well in the C seam.

However, mechanical difficulties, structural complexities and equipment failures prevented Molopo from completing the thinner A seam at this location.

As a result, some changes were made to the approach taken to the C-seam lateral, which was drilled and completed in less than three weeks.

“The drilling of the A and C Seams has given the team experience with the geology and stratigraphy specific to the area being developed,” Molopo chief operating officer Ian Gorman said.

“It was pleasing to note that we were able to penetrate structural faults and re-establish drilling within the seam on the far side of the faulting.”

Gorman added that the well had good hole stability and excellent hole cleaning, while drilling parameters (torque and drag) were within the range of expectation.

“This gives us significant confidence that longer holes are practical in the Mungi field setting,” he said.

At the Mungi-22 location, the C seam was 3.5m thick, with the lateral comprising 703m horizontal length of which 595m was in-seam.

Molopo, which is undertaking the lateral wells on a sole-risk basis, said it expected to restart operations in mid-January with the drilling of a radius bend section and the trial drilling of in-seam laterals in the A and C Seams on the Mungi-22Lb location.

This well is planned to be finished in March, once the vertical completion is installed and the well tied into the gas gathering system.

De-watering will likely begin in April subject to drilling progress.

Following Mungi-22, Molopo will trial two longer triple lateral design wells, Mungi-20 and Mungi-21, in the northern portion of the CSM 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.