Lightning-1 is planned to be drilled to a total depth of 2007m in 14 days from the start of drilling. At 6am yesterday, the operation was preparing to run 9 5/8 inch casing at 645m.

The well will test the Greater Mirage Murta oil pool concept for a potential 23 million barrels of oil-in-place over the Mirage-Lightning area, as well as the deeper Permian Patchawarra section with the interpreted potential to contain a recoverable target of up to 130 billion cubic feet of gas or 18 million bbls of oil, if oil and gas are present, VicPet said.

Primary targets for Lightning-1 are the Murta sands at 1307m and stacked sands of the early Permian Patchawarra formation over the interval 1927-1967m. Secondary targets are the sands of the McKinlay, Namur, basal Birkhead and Hutton formations.

PEL 115’s Mirage and Ventura oil fields broke a 20-year discovery drought for VicPet in the Cooper.

Results from last year’s 3D seismic survey suggest that the Mirage-1 discovery could be part of a larger feature covering about 20 square kilometres that includes the Lightning and Jindivik prospects 5km to the north-east.

“At Lightning, we’re hoping for a similar result to that achieved by Beach [Petroleum] at its Kiana-1 well, which is 50km west and has very similar geology,” VicPet managing director John Kopcheff said.

Last December’s Kiana-1 discovery in PEL 107 is currently producing 750 bbls of oil per day from two zones in the Patchawarra formation, according to recent information from Beach.

“Lightning is also 400 metres from the Sydney-to-Moomba gas pipeline, which means we would have immediate access to the market if it pays off,” Kopcheff said.

Following drilling of Lightning-1, the Hunt rig will immediately drill the Jindivik-1 exploration well. After drilling and completing Jindivik-1, the Hunt rig will leave the Cooper Basin but return in August to drill another four highly-prospective wildcats in PEL 104 and 111.

PEL 104, which is adjacent to the Tirrawarra Oil Field, the largest oil field in the Cooper Basin and onshore Australia, is considered highly prospective for Jurassic and Permian oil and gas. VicPet currently has drilled only one Jurassic targeted well, Callabonna-1, which recovered oil on test in the permit. The company plans to drill two exploration wells based on results from last year’s 2D seismic program.

An exploration well will be drilled at the Growler Jurassic oil prospect, which is up-dip and 16km to the west of the Jurassic Callabonna oil field. Following this, another well is scheduled to be drilled at the adjacent Wirraway Jurassic oil prospect.

Immediately north is PEL 111 where VicPet has identified two drilling locations not far from two Santos oil and gas discoveries. The Ascender Jurassic oil prospect is up-dip and 14km north-west of the Jurassic Charo oil field, while the Catalina Permian gas prospect lies 6km north of the Fly Lake-Brolga gas field.

VicPet believes that any Jurassic oil discovery here would open up the north-western flank of the Cooper for oil production in the same way the Beach Sellicks and Christies oil discoveries 60km to the south proved up the basin’s western flank.

“We know the Cooper Basin really well, have a solid database of information and so believe we’re on to a pretty good thing here,” Kopcheff said.

“Success in this year’s drilling program would build our reserve base and provide funding to drill more wells.”

The participants in the drilling of Lightning-1 and PEL 115 and their respective interests are operator VicPet that holds a 40% stake, Impress Ventures (40%) and Roma Petroleum (20%).