The well will take about 14 days to drill to the planned total depth of 1927m on a trouble-free basis.
Downlands South-1 is the second well of the Ausam PL 119 and ATP 471P Bainbilla Block Farm-in Stage 1 program. The well is about 4km north of Surat Town and 0.9km south of the Downlands pipeline, which connects to the Silver Springs to Wallumbilla pipeline.
Ausam will fund the first $1.5 million of the Downlands South-1 well costs and then contribute on a pro-rata interest for any costs above $1.5 million.
In addition, the company is taking varying stakes in other blocks in the permit via farm-ins.
Currently, Mosaic holds stakes of between 66.7% and 74.4% in various parts of PL119, while Santos holds between 14.87% and 25.74%. Ausam has 10.76% across the permit, but is building up to 26.9%, taking equity mainly from Mosaic but also from Santos.
Like Mosaic’s Churchie gas and oil field and the Waggamba-2 oil find, the Downlands prospects lie north-northwest of the Rockhampton High stratigraphic trap and have the same Permian-age Tinowon and Triassic-age Rewan Formation reservoirs.
This near-field exploration well will target the Permian Tinowon Sandstone gas and oil reservoirs in a separate structural closure south of the Downlands Field.
The Downlands South structure has estimated proven and probable contingent reserves of 2.3 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 730,000 barrels of recoverable oil, according to Mosaic.
