Sydney-listed coalbed methane (CBM) explorer Elixir Energy said on March 8 that its 2021 field programme in Mongolia has started with the spudding of the Yangir-2 well.  

According to the company, Yangir-2 will be a fully tested core-hole, drilled immediately adjacent to last year’s Yangir 1S strat-hole. Yangir 1S encountered 27 m of visibly bubbling coalbeds and was terminated at 347 m in December 2020 for various operational reasons, it added. 

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“After a break of a few months we are naturally very pleased to have got back into the field,” managing director Neil Young, said. “The Yangir-2 core-hole will follow up on the highly encouraging predecessor strat-hole well, which served to open up a new sub-basin in the Nomgon CBM production sharing contract. Surprises can of course happen, but if all goes to plan, our drilling and other fieldwork programme should continue for the rest of the year.” 

The Nomgon production sharing contract is located in the Gobi Desert on the Mongolia-China border. Elixir late last year raised its prospective resource estimate from 7.6 trillion ft³ to 14.6 trillion ft³ on a risked basis. The company last month said that it plans to drill 13 new wells this year.