Westside’s lateral drilling program continued to advance through 2025, delivering significant gains in efficiency and productivity.

Westside CEO Brendan Madden said a combination of stacked‑seam multi‑laterals and consistently long lateral sections resulted in more than 60 km of in‑seam coal drilled across 40 laterals during the year with the Ensign 958 rig.

“Average in‑coal meters per lateral exceeded 1,500 m, outperforming the budget by over 25%.

“Through optimised well designs, increased lateral counts per wellhead, and extended reach drilling, Westside achieved a cost per single lateral well equivalent (SLWe) more than 15% below target of less than $850k per single lateral well equivalent.

“We are extremely proud of our team for achieving such a significant result safely and efficiently,” said Mr Madden.

In June 2025, Westside delivered its most successful Meridian well to date, Nipan 61. This well consists of six laterals—configured as two tri‑laterals stacked across two separate seams—from a single wellhead. The reservoir section achieved with 10,473 m placed in‑seam. Early production performance indicates this well is the most productive well drilled to date across the field.

“Overall, this drilling performance has underpinned a record production budgeted for 2026 for the Greater Meridian field with sales consistently exceeding 50TJ per day,” he said.

In November, Westside also undertook exploration activities in ATP 2047 (Taroom) again with the Ensign 958 rig. Two wells were drilled to assess the area’s prospectivity—marking the first petroleum wells drilled within this acreage. Both wells were successfully drilled, cored and logged within a 31‑day campaign which included some heavy rain events.

“The Taroom delivery was on time and under the ambitious budget target whilst maintaining our high safety standards with no major incidents across the program,” said Mr Madden.

Westside was recently granted EPBC approval for PL94, which will underpin the future drilling program across the Greater Meridian field.