The company has appointed Perth-based MGPalaeo to build a comprehensive stratigraphic database for the North West Shelf over the next twelve months, covering the results of some 3000 wells drilled on the NWS since the 1960s.
When overlaid with Carnarvon's existing database it will provide powerful insights into the regional geology and prospectivity of the NWS, Carnarvon managing director Adrian Cook said.
"The business of Carnarvon is built around innovative geoscience, creating new exploration concepts in our current and prospective acreage, and an endeavour to deliver significant shareholder value, through major hydrocarbon discoveries," Cook said.
"Core to innovation is a top quality geoscience database. The Carnarvon management team has invested in building a ‘state of the art' database covering the NWS, giving the Carnarvon geoscience team the very best tools to explore for new hydrocarbon accumulations.
"Our investment in our geoscience also includes building a high quality and consistent wireline log
dataset; building a class-leading Triassic geochemical database, purchasing a satellite seep database of the NWS, purchasing a comprehensive seismic and velocity dataset in our core NWS areas and acquiring significant new seismic data in potentially the next major NWS oil and gas province in the Roc/Phoenix areas.
"This new stratigraphic database will provide Carnarvon with the geoscience firepower to lead in hydrocarbon exploration on the NWS."
MGPalaeo's work should equip Carnarvon geoscientists with the most up to date interpretation of stratigraphical data that exists, covering modern re-evaluations of the first wells drilled in Australia to the most recently available data.
The immediate effect will be to provide the inspiration for new exploration theories and concepts, not previously envisaged.
Carnarvon did that when it pounced on the Bedout Sub-basin, where it has since made the Roc and Phoenix South discoveries, and it is hoping to do the same with the Cerebus leases in the shallow waters of the Carnarvon Basin and with new acreage in the greater Roebuck Basin and WA-523-P in the Bonaparte Basin, close to the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea.
Carnarvon believes its namesake basin has seen explorers build up blindspots over the decades, and it is aiming to shine a light on overlooked plays, heralding the same sort of renewal that the North Sea saw in the 1990s.
Starting life as Morgan Palaeo Associates in 1983, Roger Morgan's boutique company has built a stratigraphical database over the past 25 years, constantly modernising it with new information and ideas generated by a highly qualified group of stratigraphers and geologists.
"As part of this relationship with Carnarvon, access to these innovative minds is also guaranteed, providing continual upgrading of concepts and ideas," Cook said.
He said database will complement Carnarvon's existing data set and will add competitive advantage to Carnarvon's geoscientists in identifying new oil and gas resources and high grading prospective exploration acreage.
MGP director Jeff Goodall now leads Carnarvon geological team full time.
Outtrim East-1
Elsewhere, Carnarvon (28.5%) and operator Quadrant Energy (71.5%) have struck issues in the Outtrim East-1 well in the shallow waters of the Browse Sub-basin.
The first casing string was set shallower than expected due to drilling challenges in the shallow-hole section of the well around 400m, which had resulted in a delay of some 10 days.
The section has been drilled through and the next casing will be test at 1011m.
Drilling will then continue to the expected oil zone where 90m of conventional coring will take place, and the well will then be drilled to 1440m.
