The venture had been hoping that a new migration path – similar to that mapped out to the west and south by discoveries such as Christies, Sellicks, Worrior – would be established to the north-east by a success in Kitson-1.
Sources close to the companies involved said they were disappointed there were no producible hydrocarbons, but were encouraged by the evidence of an active petroleum system, demonstrated by the non-commercial hydrocarbon shows found in Kitson.
A structure near Kitson does not have a down-dip fault between itself and the basin's source rock – as was in the case in Kitson. So this may be the next drilling target to establish if the hydrocarbons had migrated around the faulted structure.
It is too early for a full post-mortem on the well, as the decision to plug and abandon Kitson-1 was only made overnight, and full results are expected in a few days.
The Kitson partners are: Cooper Energy Limited (Operator) 30%, Sundance Energy Australia Limited 45%, Enterprise Energy NL 10%, Victoria Petroleum NL 10%, Liberty Petroleum Corporation 5%.
