The onshore gas discovery by the partners has been made at the West Erregulla prospect in the EP469 block in Western Australia
Image: Strike Energy holds a 50% joint venture interest and operates EP469. Photo: Courtesy of Strike Energy Limited.
Strike Energy and Warrego Energy have made a gas discovery at the West Erregulla prospect in the exploration permit EP469 in Western Australia’s onshore Perth Basin.
The gas discovery has been made in the Kingia sandstone as part of the West Erregulla-2 drilling programme.
According to Strike Energy, the Kingia formation was intersected at 4753m with gas on rock showing a gross gas column of over 97m.
Details of the West Erregulla gas discovery
Strike Energy revealed that the lower section from 4,790m onwards comprises various high-quality large units of clean sand having thick blocky porosity development. The 67m section is interpreted to have 41m in net pay along with 14.3% average porosity of 14.3%, said the Australian oil and gas company.
The Erregulla-2 exploration well did not encounter a gas water contact, which is in line with the seismic amplitude modeling that supports the proposed field boundaries, said the partners.
Drilling is being continued at a depth of 4,895m measured depth below rotary table (MDRT) with the second primary target, the High Cliff Sandstones, where hydrocarbons are yet to be intersected.
Strike Managing Director Stuart Nicholls said: “The Kingia results at West Erregulla have exceeded Strike’s highest expectations and indicate a significant discovery that appears to have higher reservoir quality than the Waitsia gas field.
“With West Erregulla-2 now being one of the deepest wells ever drilled onshore Australia and finding such excellent quality sandstone reservoirs, the subsurface paradigms of the Perth Basin are shifting.”
In April 2010, Warrego Energy was awarded the EP469 permit, which is located 230km north-east of Perth. The block spans an area of 224km2.
In June 2018, Strike Energy acquired 50% operating stake in the onshore exploration block with Warrego Energy retaining the remaining 50% stake.
Warrego Energy group CEO and managing director Dennis Donald said: “This exciting discovery has exceeded our pre-drill expectations for the Kingia and substantially upgraded our view of the West Erregulla gas fields as a whole.
“Our interpretation of analogous Waitsia field data and the seismic amplitude model gave us confidence that West Erregulla-2 would yield results, even though the target formations are substantially deeper.
“The net pay of 41m is significantly thicker than analogues in the Waitsia field and underlines the potential of West Erregulla and EP469 to become an important future source of gas production in Western Australia.”