Sydney Gas told the market yesterday the joint venture has installed a downhole pump to accelerate the dewatering process and recover the injected water from the fracture treatment.
It said the EM31 well produced a total of 1165 barrels, or 72.8%, of water from the 1600 barrels injected during fracture stimulation with indications that pressure was increasing.
Pumping started at the end of August, with about 50,000 cubic feet of gas successfully produced and sent to the Rosalind Park Gas Plant, while the well was still producing water up the tubing.
EM 31 is about 10km northeast and 3km northwest of Picton-3 and MT-9 wells respectively.
Both Picton-3 and MT-9 flowed a small volume of conventional gas from the Upper Permian Marrangaroo Conglomerate deposited at the base of the Illawarra Coal Measures.
EM31 intersected Marrangaroo at a depth of 835m with gross thickness of 7.5m after reaching a total depth of 918m in May.
The JV is producing and selling about 14.4 terajoules per day of coal seam methane from the Rosalind Park gas plant.
Sydney Gas said production would be ramped up in the coming months as new wells were brought on line.
AGL Energy is the operator of the Camden Gas Project in 50-50 partnership with Sydney Gas.
