The Society of Petroleum Engineers-Petroleum Resources Management System resource means LCE can now “rapidly progress” the gas buyer agreement discussions it started last year.

With the recent inferred JORC coal resource of 377 million tonnes announced on December 8 and the start of environmental baseline studies and now the gas resource certification, Leigh Creek is nearing the completion of the project’s first phase.

The company will kick off phase two of the Leigh Creek Energy project in the next quarter, with the aim of demonstrating and flaring gas come the December quarter.

“This PRMS gas resource announcement is an exciting, and important milestone in the development of the Leigh Creek Energy project and underpins our original assumption that the LCEP contained significant quantities of recoverable gas from which we intend to produce commercial quantities of gas,” LCE chairman Justyn Peters said.

The company now plans to deliver a binding gas supply contract in the June half of 2016.

“Independent gas resource certification helps accelerate the LCEP development timetable as it provides added confidence to domestic and international buyers of gas, investors in LCK and future debt providers,” the chairman said.