Finder CEO Shane Westlake said the privately owned explorer was proud to have been involved in recognising the potential of the overlooked Phoenix-1 gas discovery in 2009 and its early entry in WA-435-P, WA-436-P, WA-437-P and WA-438-P with Carnarvon Petroleum, but it was time to "hand over the baton" to Quadrant to take these discoveries to first production and to continue exploration efforts.
"We have great confidence in Quadrant as an operator of choice on the North West Shelf with a strong history of delivering projects on time and within budget," he said.
"Notwithstanding our exit from the permits Finder believes in the potential of the Bedout Sub-basin and as such is prepared to back our technical judgement with a success-based payment schedule."
It is Quadrant's most significant transaction since the privately-owned company was created from the Australian business unit of US oiler Apache Corporation by Brookfield and Macquarie Capital.
The permits are located 130km off the coast of Western Australia and contain the recent Phoenix South oil discovery and the 2015 Roc wet gas discovery, both of which are considered to be potentially commercial.
Quadrant, Carnarvon and partner JX Nippon are planning to drill the Roc-2 appraisal well, for which Finder had a remaining $6-7 million carry remaining from the Roc-1 well.
The transaction is effective March 1 and is subject to conditions precedent as well as procurement of regulatory approval, registrations and joint venture approval, which are not considered likely to be withheld.
Financial details of the transaction remain confidential, but include a combination of success payments and a royalty.
Finder has a strategic alliance with Fugro to provide technical and financial support for selected exploration opportunities. In return Fugro receives a share of the profits earned from the projects in which it participates.
The seismic concern will share 50% of the rewards with Finder.
"Our success in the Bedout Sub-basin demonstrates the Finder model works - by adding value in overlooked basins or plays through geoscience excellence and new data," Finder's founder and sole director Jan Ostby said.
Ostby was a founding partner of Seismic Australia, which was acquired by Fugro in 2000.
Finder's business model is, primarily, to bring new ideas to the offshore areas of Western Australia and the North West Shelf and fund drilling via farm-out.
It has drilled six wells to date with three discoveries at Olympus, Phoenix South & Roc, plus the promising Theia-1 Goldwyer Shale well onshore in the Canning Basin, and it is planning to spud the Cronus-1 well over the next 12-18 months in the northern Browse Basin with Shell.
