Perth-based VicPet said yesterday that it was conditioning the hole, following the completion of wireline logging, and determining the testing program for the interval 1725-1742m that preliminary interpretation of wireline, pressure and sidewall core data suggested was present.
VicPet said the PEL 104 joint venture – comprising operator VicPet with a 40% stake, Impress Energy (40%) and Roma Petroleum (20%) – would determine the full significance of the intersected column after the five-day testing program had finished.
Wirraway-1 was designed to test a large, four-way dip closed structure on the western margin of the Cooper Basin that was interpreted to have the potential to contain up to 13 million barrels of recoverable oil in multiple reservoirs.
Wirraway-1 was similar to the Growler-1 discovery that found a 15m oil column and recovered 35bbl of oil during an open-hole drill stem test from the Birkhead Formation last September.
“Exploration success at Wirraway-1 would further confirm our belief that a new oil production province could be present in the western part of PEL 104 and our adjoining PEL 111 permit,” said VicPet managing director John Kopcheff.
“Also in PEL 104 we have three prospects in the vicinity of the Wirraway Prospect, such as the Beaver and Warhawk, and a further nine similar prospects, including Ascender and Liberator, to the north in PEL 111.”
Kopcheff said Wirraway-1 was the first well drilled by the PEL 104 partners for 2007 in the under-explored Jurassic area of the permit that covered the western updip flank of the oil and gas-productive Patchawarra Trough.
It was also the first of an 11-well exploration program scheduled for VicPet’s South Australian and Queensland Cooper Basin permits over the next six months.
