KNOC and SCG will together fund the bulk of the drilling costs to a maximum of $15 million in the two permits commencing with the Culverin/Scimitar well, located south of the Basker Manta Gummy field and east of Esso BHP’s Halibut, Mackarel and Cobia fields.
The Korean companies will be funding most of the estimated well evaluation and testing costs of the well.
Nexus will retain operatorship and a 50% interest.
Nexus said at the request of KNOC and SCG final details of the farmout will detailed once the farmout agreement had been concluded.
The Culverin and Scimitar prospects are structures defined on 3D seismic data at Top Latrobe and Intra Latrobe/Golden Beach Formation levels respectively. The two prospects straddle the VIC/P56 – VIC/P49 permit boundary close to several large oil fields and on trend with existing discoveries at Blackback/Terakihi and Basker/Manta.
Nexus said it was currently in discussions regarding a drilling rig slot to be secured by the joint venture with the intention of drilling a well to test the Culverin and Scimitar prospects during the fourth quarter of this year.
KNOC is South Korea’s state-owned national oil and gas company with extensive worldwide exploration and production interests in the Middle East, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia including the recently announced investment of US$300 million in the Rong Doi and Rong Doi Tay gas fields offshore Vietnam. SCG is a South Korean publicly listed company and is the second largest gas distributor in South Korea.
