Drilling costs reduced by whopping 40pc at Botala Energy’s five-well Serowe gas play in Botswana

Cost of drilling Serowe’s wells reduced by ~40% via simplified vertical well extraction techniques
Serowe-3.5 is the central production well for Project Pitse
Pitse’s resource can feed Botswana’s Orapa gas plant for the next 20-years

Special Report: Results from Botala Energy’s Project Pitse’s Serowe-3.5 well in Botswana have intercepted 25m of highly prospective coal in the two upper coal seams.

Serowe-3.5 is the central well of the five-well system at Project Pitse and is pegged to be its first well into production.

Pitse itself is Botala Energy’s (ASX:BTE) first commercial pilot project within the Serowe coal bed methane gas project.

It contains an independently certified 2C resource of 317 billion cubic feet (Bcf) based off five historical exploration wells that all intersected 24-40m of net coal, including the prospecting Serowe and Upper Morupule formations at a relatively low $220,000 average cost per well.

BTE says this is enough to fuel Botswana’s nearby Orapa gas power station for the next 20 years.

Serowe 3.1 was spudded back in July 2021 and already has flowed gas to surface, proving that target coals have opened up and are now degassing – data vital for the continuing development of Project Pitse’s other four wells.

Flaring produced a peak flowrate of 42,000 standard cubic feet per day (scfd) and is still increasing in pressure, providing confidence that Pitse should “readily achieve the target mid-case commercial flowrate” for the five-well system of 70scfd – based on BTE’s economic analysis.

Well sites at Botala’s Project Pitse in Botswana. Pic supplied: (BTE).

Serowe’s latest

Coals at Serowe-3.5 were drilled down to 476m and intersected 25m of net coal in the two upper coal seams. They were first encountered at 344m – 17m higher than in Serowe-3.1, which is 350m to the north.

Importantly, the cost to drill the wells has been reduced by a gigantic ~40% as BTE has confirmed that gas can be extracted from low-capex vertical wells.

BTE CEO Kris Martinick says the most encouraging thing is not just consistent results but also the vast improvement in operational efficiencies.

“We have reduced our drilling time from 42 days on the Serowe-2 well to now consistently completing drilling in 10 days and significantly reduced our drilling costs by around 40%,” Martinick says.

What’s next?

Drilling and core collection through the Serowe-3.4 coal seams is set to commence prior to further production test drilling. BTE has subsequently mobilised a field lab to site for gas desorption and testing of the cores.

The concept for Project Pitse is progressing to revenue-generating gas production and establishing a 20MW hybrid gas/solar plant, designed to generate electricity for the Botswana power grid if gas flows confirm economic viability.

This article was developed in collaboration with Botala Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

This article was developed in collaboration with Botala Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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