Dart Aims for European CBM
Dart Energy has announced that it has completed an acquisition with BG Group which sees the Australian explorer take 14 onshore coal-bed methane (CBM) licences in the UK.
In a European update released today, Dart said that it is now the 100 per cent stakeholders in the licence following the deal. Before the deal, Dart and BG Group held a 50 per cent stake each in the licences. Dart will also be solely responsible for the drilling of 11 additional wells in these licences before June 2014.
Dart says it is now working on a gas sale agreement with BG Group which would see Dart sell gas back to BG Group from those licences.
In addition to its CBM focus in the UK, Dart will also exercise its options to acquire two of BG's licences in Germany, the Saxon 1 and 2 licences, which have potential for both CBM and shale.
The first well, if the licences are found to be viable following study, will be drilled in 2013 or 2014.
An acquisition of Greenpark Energy has also been completed, Dart said today, granting the company access to an additional 1.7 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves over a number of CBM and shale interests.
The company also said today that it was continuing to make strides towards production on the PEDL 133 licence in Scotland, with first gas-to-electricity revenues expected in this quarter.
The coal seam well, which first came online in January of this year, has been stably producing gas since the middle of last month.
"In parallel with the pilot well production activities, Dart International has been undertaking the work required to enable a pilot-to-power project, which will utilise pilot well gas to generate electricity and provide that electricity to the local grid, thereby generating first revenues from the field," the company said today.
Chief Executive Officer of Dart International John McGoldrick said that the company continued to serve as a major part of its operations and welcomed the progress made in the PEDL 133 licence.
"Europe is a key area of focus for Dart Energy International and we continue to make great strides in terms of progressing our business in Europe, including successfully finalising a number of transactions and initiatives previously announced," he said.
"Our flagship project, PEDL 133 in Scotland, is progressing well, and we hope to begin generating first gasto-electricity revenues from that project in the coming months, with full field development to enable GSA sales expected to commence in the first half of 2013."