Following 10 days of testing, managing director Richard Cottee said gas flow rates from the Berwyndale South-36 and 37 wells were “way ahead” of expectations.

“These results are very significant for our coal seam gas business in the Surat Basin,” Cottee said.

“By successfully extracting gas from all target seams in each well, QGC expects to reduce development costs by 10% to 20%, because fewer wells will be needed to produce the required gas."

As the first two wells to tap both the Juandah and Taroom seams, Berwyndale South-36 averaged 129,000 cubic feet of gas per day and Berwyndale South-37 flowed gas at an average 102,000 cubic feet per day.

“Now we can look forward to increasing flow rates from the combined Juandah and Taroom seams,” Cottee said.

“These results augur well for the reserves review foreshadowed at QGC’s recent AGM.”

As the operator, QGC plans to deliver first gas from the Berwyndale South Gasfield in April next year to meet the first of three unconditional sales agreements totalling a minimum of 15.4 PJ pa – or with options up to 22.4 PJ pa.

The company says it is now Australia’s largest coalbed methane specialist, with 178 petajoules of 1P reserves and 470 PJ of 2P reserves.