The embattled WHL, which is being spruced up for transformation into a tech sector play, has entered into an agreement with Fittall's Austral Exploration for the sale of WHL's last remaining oil and gas asset.
Subject to shareholder approval, Austral will take on VIC/P67 and its hefty two-well commitment for the promise of a 1% royalty on the sale of gas from the permit to a maximum of $7.5 million.
Fittall, who left WHL in mid-2015 after the company was crippled by $500,000 loan with prominent Melbourne barrister Robert Richter and came close to bankruptcy, started Austral soon after.
He was the man who originally identified the La Bella opportunity and convinced both AWE and Tap Oil to help fund the seismic commitment for an option on a farm-in.
AWE and Tap eventually elected not to proceed with the project, leaving WHL to flounder.
It has since jettisoned its frontier Seychelles acreage and is set to become the backdoor listing route for ‘internet of things' concern Quantify Technology, leaving VIC/P67 as an unwanted distraction.
The company's two well commitment was the major stumbling block for the failed farm-out process, with concerns around the risk-reward ratio in the sometimes difficult offshore Otway Basin, however in the years since there has been an increased tightening of the east coast gas situation, and the nearby Minerva BHP Billiton-operated platform is produced another five years' worth of gas.
Cooper Energy has also agreed to buy out Santos' Victorian assets, which could spark a re-assessment of the offshore Otway Basin.
VIC/P67 is now in its third year of the work program, which required two wells drilled in August, with one more well in year five.
WHL, which had originally promised to drill by 2014, has an application in with the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator to extend year three by a further 12 months.
The conditional sale agreement with Austral is expected to be wrapped up by March.
The 867sq.km La Bella 3D seismic survey was acquired in 2014, and at the time WHL said the initial results were encouraging, appearing to confirm the extent of the La Bella field in line with earlier 2D seismic plus stacked amplitude anomalies high-grade the previously identified Ferrier and Mylius features.
La Bella has a gross 2C contingent resource of 114 petajoules, and the surrounding exploration prospects for which WHL carries unrisked P50 prospective resources of some 577 PJ.
The La Bella 3D then defined a portfolio of 14 prospects containing total best estimate prospective resources of one trillion cubic feet of gas and 31.2 million barrels of condensate and LPGs.
Low geological risk ratings were assigned to the Mylius, Mylius West, Ferrier and South Ferrier prospects, all immediately west of the La Bella on the Ferrier Terrace.
WHL had proposed drilling adjacent prospects in order to underpin the development of the La Bella Hub and reduce the risks of the sometimes tricky Otway Basin geology.
The field could be developed using nearby facilities associated with the Casino, Minerva or Geographe/Thylacine projects.
The undeveloped field was discovered by BHP Billiton and Santos in 1993 but considered too small to develop and the area was eventually relinquished in 2008.
