Managing director Eric Streitberg said Arc’s technical evaluation suggests that this underexplored basin has very significant untapped potential and that the company’s planned regional exploration program of 20 wells over the next three years gives it the best chance of unlocking this potential.

“As well as Arc’s internal technical evaluation, there has been a huge amount of excellent work done in universities and government departments that can be directly applied to finding oil and gas in the Canning and in other frontier basins in Australia,” Streitberg said.

But as this work is often not easily accessible to companies in a form they can use in their exploration programs Arc has moved to incorporate this wealth of knowledge and research on the Canning Basin into its exploration program by holding the “Cracking the Canning” workshop, he said.

The workshop includes 23 selected participants with expertise and experience in the Canning Basin and in Paleozoic petroleum systems, drawn from 13 national and international organisations including universities, government agencies and the private sector.

“We are also pleased to acknowledge the participation of doctoral students from the Australian School of Petroleum [University of Adelaide], reflecting Arc’s commitment to the development of Australia’s research capacity,” Streitberg said.

“This workshop marks the beginning of an energetic dialogue between research and

industry with the understanding that the commercial success of Arc’s program will bring new opportunities for collaboration.”

Arc hopes that, with the participants testing their ideas and knowledge with their peers, the workshop will validate the petroleum systems and plays with the highest potential for commercial oil and gas discoveries in the Canning Basin.

“This outcome will help focus Arc in its ongoing exploration program,” Streitberg said.

For enquiries contact Eric Streitberg on 0411 803993