The well's main objective is to establish methane productivity from each of the three principal coal packets encountered in Folschviller St-1, the company said.

Folschviller St-1 was drilled in late 2006 and is adjacent to Folschviller-2.

According to the company, the Z-Z-Y packet with a coal thickness of 12.2m; Alpah-Alpaha-Beta-Gamma packet with a coal thickness of 14.9m; and the Marie-Maurice-Noirel packet with a coal thickness of 10.3m will be targeted for testing.

Folschviller-2 is part of the European Gas program designed to help develop the large gas-in-place resource, which totals 28.1 billion cubic metres within about 7% of the company's Lorraine permit areas.

European Gas said the well would take about 60 days to reach measured depth of 1400m.