Management believes it now has sufficient data to actively manage the pump speeds in each of the wells to ensure it maintains the correct water levels and water production levels in each of the wells, in line with TMK’s reservoir management plan.
With the drop in the wells’ water production rates, pump speeds are being decreased slowly to ensure water production remains above minimum levels to maintain efficient pump operation.
TMK Energy’s chief executive officer Dougal Ferguson said: “We have successfully operated the Pilot Well project through a second very cold and tough winter. This demonstrates that the greater development of this enormous new coal seam gas resource is very achievable in Mongolia. We remain highly confident that the Pilot Well project will confirm a commercially viable resource in the coming months.”
The company says the recent implementation of advanced Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technology in wells LF-05 and LF-06 is providing it with valuable information on reservoir productivity, with preliminary interpretation of its data showing a large portion of the reservoir is producing gas and water efficiently. No warning signs have been kicked up from the data analysis to date.
The DTS technology is designed to identify zones of increased gas and water influx, or permeability, for increased economic viability.
The company says it expects to shortly produce commercial rates of gas from the project, consisting of 60 square kilometres within the Nariin Sukhait area of the vast Mongolian countryside.
It believes the Gurvantes XXXV project can soon become a regionally significant, reliable source of natural gas for both Mongolia’s domestic market and the regional energy infrastructure.
The project’s proximity to northern China’s gas pipelines places TMK in an enviable position and potentially positions it as an emerging key player in the regional energy landscape.
Mongolia is keen to transition away from energy produced from burning coal. Coal seam gas is considered ideal as a “clean transition fuel” because it produces about half the carbon emissions produced by coal-generated electricity and burns cleaner than other fossil fuels.
TMK says it has discovered a “world-class” coal seam gas resource in Mongolia, comprising superior technical attributes to many of its peers’ developed projects.
The contingent resource (2C) of 1214 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas is Mongolia’s biggest, according to the company. Management believes it possesses significant exploration upside potential outside its core area, with a 5300 BCF prospective resource across its total 8400-square-kilometre ground.
If TMK can continue its record-setting trend, it may be on a pathway to becoming a valuable contributor to the region’s massive future energy requirements.
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