TDC Drilling wins contract for Comet Ridge’s Mahalo Block in Australia

TDC Drilling has secured a contract to provide drilling services to Australian oil and gas company Comet Ridge's upcoming work programme at Mahalo Block in central Queensland.

The programme set to be carried out in ATP 1191 includes the under-reaming of the Mira pilot wells and drilling the Humboldt South 1 core hole, which lies around 6km to the east-northeast of Mira.

TDC will pursue a two-rig plan under the agreement, which is expected to maximise efficiency and reduce overall costs.

Comet Ridge noted that Mira under-reaming work will begin with the mobilisation of Rig 8 from Roma, Queensland, where TDC Drilling has an operational base.

Works currently scheduled to take place at Mira include pulling out tubing and pumps from the wells and under-reaming the coals. The tubing and pumps will then be rerun back into the wells in order to put them back onto production.

The larger drilling rig Rig 10 will be used to drill the new Humboldt South 1 corehole following the completion of the under-reaming.

Mahalo Block is located around 240km west of Gladstone, 14km east of a Santos-APLNG owned pipeline and roughly 40km north of both Jemena’s Queensland Gas Pipeline and the GLNG main line to Gladstone.

Comet Ridge owns a 40% interest in the Mahalo joint venture (JV) project area.

Other stakeholders in the JV include Santos and APLNG, with both companies holding a 30% interest each.

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Image: Northern Mahalo Block area showing the coming focus on the Mira area pilot wells and the soon to be drilled, Humboldt South 1 corehole. Photo: courtesy of Comet Ridge Limited.