The Brisbane-based company today said intensive drilling is underway at the Moranbah gas project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, to bring the field up to a planned deliverability level of 55 terajoules per day.

In an operations update, Arrow said three rigs for horizontal/radius bend drilling are onsite as are two rigs drilling vertical well sections as part of the current development program.

Most of the current drilling is in the north and west of the project and 11 development wells are planned over the next six months.

“Analysis shows that these multi-seam wells will deliver improved performance per dollar of expenditure,” Arrow said.

“One such well, GM57, is already in production and is ramping up rapidly, already surpassing 1.1 million cubic feet per day within two months of first gas.”

The Moranbah gas project is currently producing 46MMcfd field production, translating into 22TJd sales net to Arrow. It is planned to increase this to 58MMcfd this year to meet contractual supply obligations.

At the company’s Tipton West project in the Surat Basin, Arrow said 55 of 84 drilled wells are now on pump.

Three workover rigs are now onsite executing a completion program that is targeting having all wells onstream by April 30.

Arrow said dewatering of the field continues at around 32,000 barrels of water per day and gas rates continue to ramp up. The current field rate is about 4.8MMcfd.

It said a drilling rig would be moved to site shortly to start work on one of two planned pilots in the Tarooms coal seam, which underlies the seams currently being produced.

The pilots will test the dewatering capability of the Tarooms seam with the target of achieving Taroom reserve certification before end-2007. This work forms part of the previously announced 2007 reserves certification targets of 300PJ for the Surat area.

Arrow said the Kogan North field continues its steady ramp up and field gas production is now about 7MMcfd, while wells at Daandine have been gradually brought onstream over the past six months.

Meanwhile, the company said the reserves certification program previously outlined at Moranbah is set to begin towards the end of March with an intense period of core drilling, production testing and seismic.

Additional reserve certification at Moranbah is expected to be done by end-September.