Australian company Senex Energy and its partner Beach Energy have made oil discovery at the Breguet-1 oil exploration well located in ex PEL 104 on the western flank of South Australia's Cooper basin.
Image: A map showing Breguet-1 oil exploration well on western flank of the Cooper Basin. Photo: courtesy of Senex Energy Limited.
The Breguet-1, which is the first well for the company’s FY19 drilling campaign, was identified from the merged Liberator 3D seismic survey. It was drilled to test sandstones of the Birkhead Formation within a four-way structural closure.
Upon drilling, the Breguet-1 well encountered elevated gas readings and oil shows within the target formation.
Senex managing director and CEO Ian Davies said: “We are delighted to have made this oil discovery from the first well of our FY19 drilling campaign.
“The firm ten well FY19 campaign presents an exciting opportunity to drive growth and value from our western flank acreage, with a mix of exploration, appraisal and horizontal development wells.”
The firm said that preliminary evaluation was carried out on the well logs which indicated net pay of up to 5.7 meters within an 18.5 meter gross oil column.
Senex also performed a wireline formation test across a depth of 1,673m to 1,689m which indicated the presence of movable oil.
The partners are planning to commence production from the well, which is currently being cased and suspended, in Q2 FY19 via a flowline to existing infrastructure.
Senex said in a statement: “Preliminary evaluation of results has provided encouragement for potential follow-up appraisal drilling between the Breguet and Spitfire fields.”
Separately, Senex has secured approval from the Commonwealth Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) to move ahead with the development of the Western Surat Gas Project located in Queensland’s Surat Basin.
The Western Surat Gas Project includes 13 blocks within the Authority to Prospect (ATP) 795, ATP 767 and part of ATP 889.It comprises approximately 840km2 of natural gas acreage.
Davies said: “This approval follows the recent announcement of a cost effective corporate and development debt facility, as well as partnering with Jemena for delivery of Project Atlas infrastructure.”
According to estimates, the Western Surat gas project contains net proven reserves of 8.3 million metric barrels of oil equivalent (Mmboe), and proven and probable reserves of 72.6Mmboe.