The Merlinleigh Joint Venture was set up to explore three leases in the Merlinleigh Sub-Basin in the inland southern Carnarvon Basin. It included two Empire Oil subsidiaries, a Pancontinental Oil & Gas subsidiary, Falcore Pty Ltd, Indigo Oil and Vigilant Oil. Longreach Oil later farmed into the operation.

The joint venture was dissolved after drilling in the Carlston prospect produced results that were disappointing yet promising, Pancontinental CEO Andy Svalbe told EnergyReview.net.

“Carlston had shows, nothing commercial, but we could see it was on the edge of an oil play,” Svalbe said.

“When we looked at the results from the Quobba-1 well drilled to the west near the coast we could see that was also on the edge on an oil play. So we dropped the Merlinleigh acreage and decided to follow the play to the west, somewhere between Carlston and Quobba.”

Old seismic indicated an anticlinal close in the Lake MacLeod area and this was where the Merlinleigh Joint Venture decided to redirect its efforts to.

Operator Empire Oil has estimated this prospect to have potential recoverable reserves of about 150 million barrels.

Interests in EP 439 are Empire Oil Company (WA) Limited 35% (operator) and Gulliver Productions Pty Ltd (both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Empire Oil & Gas NL, giving Empire a 44% stake in the permit), Euro Pacific Energy Pty Ltd (wholly-owned subsidiary of Pancontinental Oil & Gas N.L.) 23%, Longreach Oil Limited 18%, Indigo Oil Pty Ltd 9%, Falcore Pty Ltd 5% and Vigilant Oil Pty Ltd 1%.

The lease is located in the Gascoyne Sub Basin in the southern Carnarvon Basin about 100km north-east of the town of Carnarvon.

The Lake MacLeod structure is interpreted from seismic data as an anticlinal feature with Devonian-aged carbonate sediments draped over an older Silurian-aged fault block. Published data from existing wells in the basins shows that good oil-prone source rocks are present in organic-rich marine shales in the lower part of Devonian Gneudna Formation, according to Empire.

“The Devonian section in the nearby Quobba-1 well demonstrates the potential for reservoir quality and seal with the recording of good oil and gas shows throughout the Gneudna Formation,” Empire said.

“The reservoir objectives of the Lake MacLeod prospect are dolomites which demonstrated good reservoir potential with oil and gas shows in Quobba-1.”

Empire is planning a petroleum geochemical survey over the Lake MacLeod Prospect in April 2005.

“The planned survey technique demonstrated significant and encouraging results further north in the Carnarvon Basin over the Parrot Hill East oil prospect,” Empire said.

“This geochemical technique is considered applicable to the Lake MacLeod Prospect as the objective reservoirs are also shallow oil targets. The survey is planned for April to coincide with the post summer dry conditions ideal for this type of petroleum geochemical survey.”

The drilling depth to the Gneudna Formation dolomite reservoir objective is about 1,000 metres. Depending on the seismic reprocessing and remapping and the petroleum geochemical survey results, the drilling of the Lake MacLeod Prospect will be progressed by farmout, Empire said.