An offshore Indonesia oil and gas wildcat, Pandu-1, was plugged and abandoned after finding no significant hydrocarbons. The Martha-1 gas wildcat in the Otway Basin in offshore Victoria was also abandoned – hydrocarbons were found but Santos and its partners decided it would not be the commercial success they had hoped for.
Callister-1, a gas wildcat in the offshore Otway Basin, Victoria is still drilling ahead, aiming for a target depth of 3892 metres; while Khefren-1/ST2 an oil wildcat in the central Gulf of Suez, Egypt is also drilling ahead and getting close to its target depth of 3911 metres.
In a win for Santos, Yangtse-1 – a gas wildcat in ATP 259P, a Queensland Cooper Basin lease – was cased and suspended pending completion as a future gas producer.
Elsewhere in the Queensland Cooper Basin but in PL 61, a delineation well Galex-1, has also been cased and suspended pending completion as a future gas producer.
Santos is the operator in these two permits with 60.0625% equity. Its partners are Delhi 23.2%, Origin 16.5% and Oil Company of Australia 0.2375% (a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin).
Meanwhile Santos’ East Mereenie-43 gas development well in the Amadeus Basin has flowed gas from the primary objective Pacoota Sandstone at the rate of 15.3 million cubic feet per day with a stable flowing pressure of 183psi through a 2 1/16 inch choke. The field has good access to Darwin and has the potential to deliver gas at a substantial rate to meet existing gas contracts, according to the junior partner, Magellan.
Interests in East Mereenie-43 are Santos (operator) 65% and Magellan 35%.
And another gas well – Churchie-6 in the Surat-Bowen Basin – should be spudded next week in order to capture expanding gas market opportunities. Another well may be drilled soon afterwards. The two new wells are to be drilled in the northern part of the successful Churchie Field.
Mosaic (operator 49%) and Santos (51%) are currently are supplying two gas contracts from the field. Mosaic is continuing negotiations for possible additional sales contracts and the new wells will be required to satisfy any agreements.
Churchie wells 2 and 4 were connected with spurlines to Mosaic’s Silver Springs gathering station earlier this year to provide access to gas flows for increased sales agreements. An audit of gas reserves earlier this year in the Churchie Field indicated 2P recoverable gas reserves in the Permian Tinowon Sandstone at 60 petajoules (PJ).
