Pleasant surprise for Cooper Oil Project partners
The Santos, Origin Energy and Beach Petroleum joint venture has made two new oil discoveries, one of which was unexpected.
During testing, the Itchy-1 exploration well flowed oil at 2174 barrels per day, while Ramses-2 produced 588bopd, according to Beach.
But Ramses-2 was actually designed to be a gas appraisal well, drilled in the Ramses gas field in southwest Queensland, about 75km northeast of the Ballera gas plant.
However, a test of the Jurassic-aged Poolowanna Formation resulted in a flow of oil to surface, according to Beach, which holds a 28.8% stake.
The JV is now weighing up its options, including using the Ramses-2 well bore for oil and/or gas production and further appraisal drilling.
Meanwhile in South Australia, the Itchy-1 exploration well has been cased and suspended for future production after a drill stem test of the Hutton Formation flowed 2174bopd through a half-inch surface choke.
The wildcat is located 50km southeast of Moomba and 3km east of the Limestone Creek oil production facility.
Both these discoveries follow a successful nine-well oil development program from September to December last year in the Yanda field in southwest Queensland, according to Beach, which seems very pleased with its purchase of former joint venture partner Delhi Petroleum.
Before 2006, Beach said the JV’s primary activity at Yanda involved the development of gas reserves in the Permian section, which provided a cornerstone reserve for the Southwest Queensland Gas Project.
Oil in the shallower intervals had been recognised in several earlier Yanda wells, but rarely specifically targeted.
All nine wells in the 2006 campaign (Yanda-17 through Yanda-25) were cased and suspended as potential oil producers from the Murta Formation and/or Hutton Sandstone.
Completion and connection of these wells are in progress, and oil production is expected to increase to a rate of about 500bopd, of which Beach’s share is 100bopd, through April this year.
In the next few months, the focus of the Cooper Oil Project will move to the Naccowlah Block (Beach 38.5%) in southwest Queensland, which will undergo a 20-well drilling program.
This year, Beach expects to participate in the drilling of up to 130 wells associated with the Cooper Oil Program.
In the joint venture's main Cooper Basin leases and the Moomba gas processing plant, Santos holds 66.6%, Beach holds 20.2% and Origin holds 13.2%. Interests vary for each of the three companies in the JV's southwest Queensland Cooper-Eromanga blocks.
Endeavours rewarded at Tintaburra
Meanwhile, at the Tintaburra Block in southwest Queensland, junior partner Drillsearch Energy reports that two new wells, Endeavour-33 and 26, have been cased.
Drillsearch said the drilling campaign “continues to be successful” and drilling is going ahead at the Endeavour-39 and 17 wells.
In its weekly update, Drillsearch said rig PDI-735 was released from Endeavour-34 on January 10 and it spudded Endeavour-33 the next day.
The Sydney-based company said the oil development well encountered oil shows in the mid-Birkhead Formation and wireline logs indicated about 4.5m of net pay. The well has now been cased and suspended as a future water injection well.
The rig was then released to Endeavour-17, which spudded on January 16. Drillsearch said current operations are now running surface casing there.
Rig PDI-724 spudded the Endeavour 26 oil delineation well in early January where good oil shows were encountered in the Birkhead Formation.
Drillsearch said evaluation of wireline logs indicated about 8m of net oil pay and the well has been cased and suspended as a future oil producer.
The rig has now been released to the Endeavour-39 well location.
Operator Santos holds an 89% stake in the Tintaburra Block, while Drillsearch holds 10% and CPC Energy the remaining stake.
