Yesterday, the US oil giant said that just completed exploration drilling in the Jansz field, 200km off the Dampier coast in the North West Shelf, has identified 20 trillion cubic feet of gas, a "world-class" reserve that equates to about 15% of Australia's current gas reserves.
"ExxonMobil believes this is to be the largest gas discovery ever to have been made in Australian waters," said Exxon exploration manager, Doug Schwebel. "Janz new represents about 40% of the undeveloped gas resources in the deep water Carnarvon Basin."
Exxon and its joint venture partner in the field, fellow oil giant ChevronTexaco, said they plan to drill an appraisal well and perform production tests in the middle of this year to further delineate the resource.
To put the discovery in perspective, North Rankin in the North West Shelf contains 12 tcf, the undeveloped Greater Gorgon gas field holds about 20 tcf while the Bass Strait, main supplier of domestic gas, contained 10 tcf of reserves at its peak.
