In a presentation to investors, Beach outlined its upcoming drilling program, which includes three offshore exploration wells – one in each of the Carnarvon, Otway and New Zealand’s Canterbury basins.
The first high-risk, high-reward well to spud will be the Santos-operated Hurricane-2 oil exploration well in WA-208-P, which is targeting 40-50 million barrels of oil potential.
Beach, which holds a 10% stake, said the exploration well, located downdip from the Hurricane-1 gas discovery well, was on track to start drilling this month.
Meanwhile offshore New Zealand, the all-Australian PEP 38259 joint venture has not forgotten about the Barque prospect, which took a back seat late last year when the first well, Cutter-1, was deemed sub-commercial.
At the time, operator Tap Oil said gas shows encountered in the well provided encouragement for the nearby Barque prospect, “which was located more proximate to the hydrocarbon-generating source rock, and where similar seismic characteristics are observed”.
Beach predicted an exploration well, targeting 6 trillion cubic feet of gas and 500MMbbl of condensate, at Barque would be drilled next year.
Back in Australia, the company holds a 50% interest in Otway Basin permit Vic P/46, where it says the Fermat prospect has the potential to be twice the size of the nearby Casino gas field.
An exploration well targeting 1Tcf of gas is expected to be drilled on the prospect next year, following the acquisition and analysis of a 3D seismic data set.
In South Australia, the company recently farmed-in to four geothermal exploration licences belonging to hot rocks explorer Petratherm.
The JV intends to drill one or two wells to demonstrate the hot rock energy resource some time this year.
Beach said its business strategies included: building a gas portfolio around the eastern seaboard pipeline network; entering potential liquefied natural gas projects at the ground floor; getting more exposure to high-reward exploration, both in Australia and overseas; and assessing geothermal project for both long-term revenue potential and carbon credits.
