Australian pairing: Carnarvon Petroleum Finder Exploration are getting set for 2010 work programme off Western Australia
Australian pair ready to rumble
Carnarvon Petroleum and Finder Exploration are accelerating the planned work programme over their four permits which they won in a recent bidding round off Western Australia earlier this year.
Following the approved award and transfer of interests in licences WA-435-P, WA-436-P, WA-437-P and WA-438-P to Carnarvon (50% share) and operator Finder Exploration (50% share), the pair are ready to kick-off their 2010 work programme.
The pair will shoot 1100 square kilometres of new 3D seismic data in permits WA-435-P and WA-437-P, plus shoot another 410 square kilometres of new 2D seismic data in all permits.
An additional 15,100 square kilometre aeromagnetic data sweep will focus on permits WA-436-P and WA-438-P.
The pair will also reprocess a total of 5253 square kilometres of 2D seismic data in all permits and undertake further geological and geophysical studies based on the existing and newly acquired datasets.
The four permits lie in the north-western part of the Bedout sub-basin within the greater Roebuck basin.
The blocks lie in an under-explored area that has received little recent attention, next to the prolific Carnarvon hydrocarbon province to the south-west and the Browse basin to the north-east, said Carnarvon.
Only six wells have been drilled in the permits to date. The two wells, Phoenix-1 and Phoenix-2, drilled on the large Phoenix structure in WA-435-P both intersected extensive gas columns within low porosity mid Triassic reservoir.
In particular, Phoenix-1 recorded 110 metres of net gas-bearing section, however further work is required to determine reservoir parameters and whether the discovery could flow at commercial rates.
A larger, untested structure in WA-435-P lies directly on trend with the Phoenix structure, five to 15 kilometres to the south-west. Further to the south-east in WA-437-P lies yet another large, untested structure.