At 6am WST this morning, Roc was preparing to plug and abandon the well before moving the ENSCO 67 jack-up drill rig to the next drilling location, Frankland-1, in WA-286-P.
Joint venture partner, Arc Energy, previously had high hopes for the well, but managing director Eric Streitberg was still upbeat about the results.
“Whilst we are obviously disappointed with this result as we are with any dry hole, there are a number of other prospects on TP/15 that need a jackup rig to drill them, so we will review those in the light of the Moondah result for possible inclusion in the next drilling phase,” Streitberg said.
“The other group of prospects in TP/15 that are closer to the coast look more like
Jingemia/Hovea style prospects than the Moondah structure. These include Redhill which is intended to be drilled by Arc as part of its onshore drilling program in late 2006 once well priorities are agreed between the various joint ventures.”
Located 17km north of the Cliff Head development, Moondah-1 was targeting 50 million barrels of oil in a structure considered similar to Dongara, with a comparable cross fault seal configuration.
The TP/15 joint venture comprises Arc Energy, which holds a 45% stake, AWE Oil (25%), operator Roc Oil (operator – 20%) and Westranch Holdings (10%).
