Beach Petroleum said it will launch a second major exploration drive in several weeks, beginning with the spudding of Moana-1, after establishing access regimes over CO2000-C block in the northeast corner of the basin as well as areas to the north and south of the successful Sellicks-1 oil well.
"Today's historic native title agreements truly put pace into the opportunities in 2003 to further develop the reservoir potential of the outer areas of the Cooper Basin," said Beach Petroleum managing director, Reg Nelson.
Santos' plans to drill up to 14 wells over the next five years and undertake 320 sq.km of seismic in new exploration permit CO2000-G is one step closer after signing a native title agreement with the local Yandruwandha/Yawarrawrrka people, a key condition in winning the permit.
Stuart Petroleum plans to drill the "exciting" Arwon structure, said to hold 2 million barrels of oil and 3 billion cubic feet of gas, once it is granted PEL 102 and PEL 113. Stuart hopes to drill both blocks in the current calender year.
