The first well, Gunna North-1, to be drilled at the southwest Queensland project, encountered 2.4m of oil pay in the primary target Murta Member and has now been cased and suspended as a future oil production well. The PDI-724 rig has now moved to the Tequila-1 location.
During the current quarter, operator Santos, which holds a 61.5% stake, plans to drill at least 24 appraisal and exploration wells in the Naccowlah Block.
Beach, which owns the remaining 38.5%, said it expected to spend about $21 million on the Naccowlah program, which had the potential to add 1000 barrels of oil per day to its net production.
The company increased its Naccowlah and other Cooper Basin entitlements when it became a partner in the Cooper Basin Joint Venture after last September paying $590 million for Delhi Petroleum’s 21% interest in more than 200 oil fields.
Managing director Reg Nelson said Beach was a strong supporter of the Cooper Oil program.
“It is one of the principle reasons for Beach’s successful bid to acquire Delhi Petroleum last year, because it is replicating – on a much larger scale – what we have achieved in the last five years in our Bodalla Block oil fields,” Nelson said.
“Naccowlah’s potential additional revenue and net margin contributions to Beach are strong.”
The new program will focus on making new oil discoveries in both the Murta and Hutton reservoirs. If successful, new fields are likely to be delineated with further drilling, according to Beach.
New production wells would be connected to existing processing facilities in the region.
Tintaburra and Nockatunga
At the Tintaburra arm, 10% stakeholder Drillsearch Energy said the latest oil delineation well, Huckleberry-2, has been cased and suspended as a future producer.
Drilled using Rig PDI-735, the Huckleberry-2 well has proved a “potentially significant” northwest extension of the Mulberry oil field, the junior said.
Meanwhile at Nockatunga, Magellan Petroleum says wireline logs are currently being run over the Kamel-1 exploration well, which during drilling encountered oil shows in the Murta Member.
