Drilling is scheduled to start on the Moriary-1 wildcat in the northern Perth Basin’s EP 426 next week.
This will be immediately followed in April or May by a well in the Carnarvon Basin’s EP 439, Lake Macleod-1, which in turn will be followed by nearby Star Finch-1 in EP 5/06-7, providing that well receives pending formal approval.
Empire has engaged drilling engineer Hugh Edwards to oversee the company’s 2008 drilling program in the Perth and Carnarvon basins, and has received all necessary state government approvals and landowner access agreements for Moriary-1 and Lake Macleod-1.
Operations on the Moriary well site are progressing, with earthworks completed.
“The 20-inch conductor and 13 3/8-inch surface casing have been drilled and cemented to a depth of 24 metres,” Empire said.
“The ADS Rig 6 is now being rigged-up on location with commencement of drilling operations scheduled in the week starting February 11.”
With a planned total depth of 2550m, Moriary-1 is being drilled to test an anticlinal structure with Jurassic-aged reservoir objectives on the ‘F’, ‘J’ and ‘L’ sand of the Cattamarra coal measures.
Potential recoverable oil reserves are estimated to be 3 million barrels in the ‘F’ sands, 4MMbbl in the ‘J’ sands and 4MMbbl in the ‘L’ sands.
The Lake Macleod structure is an anticline with Devonian carbonates draped over a Silurian fault block.
“The Devonian section in nearby Quobba-1 demonstrated reservoir and seal, and good oil and gas shows,” managing director Craig Marshall said in a statement.
“The Lake Macleod structure has the potential to have up to 150 million barrels of recoverable oil if oil is present and the structure is filled to its maximum possible mapped spill point.”
The Star Finch prospect is near Lake Macleod and the company hopes to drill the two wells consecutively.
Both drilling locations have been pegged. The company is using its own mobile drilling camp and says it has sufficient casing to complete both Lake Macleod and Star Finch.
Stakeholders in the Moriary-1 well are Empire, with 40%, Allied Oil & Gas (25%), ERM Gas (25%) and Black Fire Energy (10%).
The participants in Lake Macleod-1 are operator Empire (32.86%), Jurassica Oil & Gas (35%), Longreach Oil (13.44%), Black Fire Energy (7.5%), Indigo Oil (6.72%), Falcore (3.73%) and Vigilant Oil (0.75%).
