Costs, native title and red tape all conspired to make the former investment banker wary of ever working onshore Australia, but he says the well report from Ocean Hill-1 was so good the deal was a no-brainer.

Egerton-Warburton now says he wants to build Eneabba Gas into one of the largest players in the Perth Basin, because he sees a macro gas story unfolding that, if the fragmented acreage holding could be consolidated, would attract the attention of big US investors.

It's happened before.

Warren Buffett's CalEnergy Australia had a number of investments in the northern Perth basin, and remains engaged in the large but troublesome Whicher Range gas field in the southern Perth Basin.

Egerton-Warburton said the 1991 drilling report from SAGASCO read like a horror story, but by the end of that flight to Texas in April 2013 he became convinced that Eneabba - a not terribly successful company to that point - should deal in on the Ocean Hill block, buying it from Green Rock Energy.

Green Rock had won the block, but wanted to get into graphite.

Eneabba, originally formed a decade ago to build a still undeveloped 168 megawatt power plant near Dongara in the Perth Basin, is looking for gas for its plant, and believes Ocean Hill has the right stuff to start building a gas business.

"The Perth Basin is rife for large scale international farm-in partners," Egerton-Warburton said.

The basin is close to Perth and the south-west gas markets, and while the first gas discovery, Yardarino, dates back to 1964, there is plenty of life in the basin, as 2014's massive Waitsia gas field attests, which is almost as large as the Dongara gas field, the largest yet discovered.

There are just 15 commercial field discoveries in the basin from 366 wells drilled, and exploration, when the basin has undergone one of its periodic booms, is fractured.

Outside Origin Energy, market capitalisation $8.9 billion, and AWE, worth $494 million, the rest of the basin is controlled by microcaps.

In all 20 companies control around 40 permits, so it is difficult for big money to build a reasonable position.

"Why would you look at the Perth Basin right now when there are sexy, cheap conventional assets to go and buy in the US?" he asked.

"Because, as global energy prices have fallen dramatically, gas prices in WA remain positive at $8-9/gigajoule and are forecast to rise to over $12/GJ."

With the big North West Shelf Venture domestic gas obligations rolling off, Egerton-Warburton said new discoveries needed to be made, and the key ingredients are all in the Perth Basin, which is truly under-explored.

There has been 30 years between the two biggest discoveries: Dongara (500 petajoules) in the 1960s and Waitsia (485PJ) last year.

And this is the right time, with costs falling, while gas prices are set by long-term contracts, not the spot market, he said.

Companies such as Alcoa are so desperate for gas they are backing exploration.

"There is also a shift in thinking from some of the US E&P companies, focused on the large acreage positions and premium gas price dynamics."

He used American Energy Partner's farm-ins into the McArthur Basin as an example of this changing approach.

Eneabba would like to increase its Perth Basin acreage in areas of "strong geological merit", building on its Ocean Hill block and its EP 447 joint venture with UIL Energy around the shut-in Walyering gas field.

Both are underneath the major pipelines, and could easily be used to meet gas demands or fuel the proposed Centauri gas plant.

Ocean Hill has a 3C contingent resource of 712 billion cubic feet and 14 million barrels of condensate, as was proven with a 700,000 cubic feet per day gas flow with 17bcpd from a net 100m column in the Cadda formation and Cattamara coal measures.

SAGASCO drilled the well highly overbalanced, using old technology, and damaged the formation.

Modern day drilling should overcome those issues, he said.

Notwithstanding the massive Warro tight gas field being drilled nearby, Egerton-Warburton said Ocean Hill-2 is "the most attractive exploration well to be drilled in the next 12 months", and the company is so sure of success it has permission to drill before it meets its seismic commitment.

Finder Exploration has farmed in to fund the well, but that deal has been renegotiated, and Eneabba can cancel it if it gets a better offer.

Ocean Hill South could be even better, he said.

"If this was in the US this would have been drilled a hundred times over."