The company’s joint venture with Woodside released a positive report from the Stybarrow appraisal drilling campaign in the Exmouth Sub-basin (permit WA-255-P(2)), which follows an Apache Energy report last week on the success of the Ravensworth-2 well.
With BHPB the majority shareholder in Ravensworth and an equal partner at Stybarrow commentators are predicting a significant new oil province in the Exmouth Basin, based around the Ravensworth, Stybarrow and Stickle discoveries.
During the Stybarrow campaign two appraisal wells, Stybarrow-3 and Stybarrow-4 and two exploration wells, Eskdale-2 and Knott-1, were drilled in the permit to test the further exploration potential of the block and provide information about the size of Stybarrow oil reserve.
“Our interpretation of the preliminary well data has enhanced our previous perception of the potential volume of the Stybarrow field, indicating Stybarrow is a medium-sized oil accumulation,” said BHP Billiton Petroleum president Americas/Australia operations and technology Mike Weill.
“This is a positive outcome and BHP Billiton is continuing with plans to commercialise the prospects.
“At this stage no decision has been made on the nature of any development, but we are assessing a number of options including stand-alone facilities and co-development with other accumulations in the area.
“BHP Billiton believes the Exmouth Sub-basin is developing as an important oil province in Australian waters, having yielded a number of small to medium oil discoveries in recent years.
The companies have now drilled a total of nine wells in WA-255-P(2) and are continuing to assess the potential of adjacent prospects.
Of the recent wells Eskdale-2 encountered a gross oil column of 13m; Stybarrow-3 a gross oil column of 6.5m and the subsequent sidetrack well, Stybarrow-4, intersected a 16m gross oil column about two kilometres northeast of Stybarrow-1.
The original Stybarrow oil discovery encountered a gross oil column of 23m with 18.6m of net pay BHP Billiton is also currently operating on behalf of the WA-271-P joint venture (Woodside, operator 60%, Mitsui 40%) the drilling of the exploration well Indian-1 located in WA-271-P, close to the boundary of WA-255-P(2).
Apache has a 28.57% interest in Ravensworth-2 with BHP Billiton, the operator, holding the remaining 71.43% interest.
