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Austral ready to test Douglas wildcat



By Upstream staff 

Austral Pacific Energy plans to flow test its Douglas-1 oil wildcat onshore Papua New Guinea after it discovered gas in the Alene and Toro sands.

The well, which was drilled to a total depth of 1978 metres, hit a four metre net gas column in the Alene sand and a 12 metre gas column in the Toro sand.

Austral chief executive Rick Webber said: “We are very encouraged by the results we have seen so far in Douglas-1 although we recognize that the prospects for successfully commercialising the resource will require a lot of further evaluation.

“The results of the production test, particularly the condensate to gas ratio, as well as the outcome of any subsequent appraisal drilling, will be keys to determining the commerciality of the resource.”

The heli-portable rig Coral Sea is currently conditioning the well prior to running production casing.

Austral said that it has told its partner Rift Oil about its plans to test the well and will sole risk the test if needed.

Rift is contributing the first $6 million on Douglas-1 in return for a 65% stake in permit PPL235. Operator Austral holds 35%.


Thursday, 01 June, 2006, 00:38 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 01 June, 2006, 00:50 GMT

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