DART Energy has successfully completed a three-month production test period of its flagship coal-bed methane (CBM) site in Airth, Stirlingshire.
The Australian company said peak flow rates of 800,000 standard cubic feet of gas per day were recorded.
According to Dart, the data gathered during the test period validates its long-term investment plans at Airth.
It said the sustainable commercial gas production had been demonstrated, and well flows greater than one million standard cubic feet of gas per day are obtainable without the need for fracking.
CBM is a technique which extracts gas from coal by compressing the rock with water pressure, whereas fracking involves splitting rocks apart by injecting liquid at high pressures.
Dart already has an agreement with SSE to provide gas from Airth over a period of eight years, with production on course to start in the final quarter of 2013.
Dart Energy International chief executive John McGoldrick said: "We have invested significant capital in this area and are proud to be the first company to generate electricity from CBM natural gas in Scotland.
"During our Airth 12 well-production test, we have achieved sustainable and con-tinuous flow rates, significantly higher than any other CBM well production in Europe.
"This test has provided us with continued confidence as we move forward in developing the PEDL133 [Airth] project.
"We see our production test results as being good news for the further development of CBM resources in the UK and, more broadly, in mainland Europe."
Dart is waiting on further regulatory and planning approvals before it drills more wells at Airth.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article