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With its pivot away from Australia to wildcatting in Papua New Guinea in full flight, Rawson Oil & Gas has announced it has finally been able to finally secure a partner for PEL 155 after years of failed attempts.
Nelson's start-up has been formed with a group of highly experienced oil and gas professionals including ex-Beach chief operating officer Neil Gibbins, who acts as Vintage's managing director.
The group has agreed to earn up to 50% in the 226sq.km PEL 155 from Rawson.
The block is just 10km south-east of the Katnook gas fields and sits in the South Australian portion of the Otway Basin, along the Victorian border where exploration is currently banned.
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Gibbins told Energy News that PEL 155 was well located on the gas trend in the south-eastern Otway Basin, and he was working to drill the long-delayed commitment well before the due date of 2020.
"We have a lot of approvals to get before we will be in a position to drill, but we see this block as the first of what we are trying to build, and we are looking around Australia for a mix of assets that offer production and longer-term development opportunities," he explained.
"We want to have a good spread of assets behind us, and this is just the first."
The company has almost completed its seed raising process, and has the aim of going to an initial public offer when the time is right.
Vintage will earn an initial 25% interest in PEL 155 for an upfront payment of $100,000, and it can move to 50% by meeting further unspecified conditions, which Gibbins declined to discuss in detail.
Rawson and Vintage intend to drill a gas exploration well which will test the Nangwarry prospect in the north-western section of the permit.
The prospect is a three-way dip, fault dependent trap in the Pretty Hills formation and is defined on 3D seismic as being analogous to the nearby Katnook, Haselgrove and Ladbroke grove fields which have produced substantial volumes of gas since discovery.
A recent re-evaluation of existing 2D and 3D seismic has also identified four additional conventional leads, providing attractive follow-up targets in the case of a discovery.
PEL 155 sits over the deepest part of the Penola Trough.
Gibbins said Vintage saw the Eastern Australian gas market as offering unique opportunities for energetic and entrepreneurial companies to participate in the resurrection of the domestic gas market.
"Vintage is backed by a number of highly experienced people with the drive to ensure the local market has the energy it needs to operate their businesses and sustain their family homes," he said.
Drilling success will extend a proven play province, provide much needed gas to the South Australian market and increase exploration interest in the region.
There have been a number of modest gas discoveries around the Katnook area between 1991 and 2011 and small oil pools such as Killanoola-1 and Jacaranda Ridge-1 in the 1990s.
The South Australian extend of the Otway Basin is also set to see new drilling by Beach with Haselgrove-3, a $10-15 million well to test a 34 billion cubic feet gas prospect nearby.
In 2014 Rawson's former management paid $2 million to secure Hardie Energy's 62.5% stake in PEL 154 and PEL 155, but struggled to farm the blocks out since.
Originally Rawson hoped to drill the Benara and Nangwarry prospects in 2014 and 2015.
Gibbins told Energy News that Vintage had "no interest" in PEL 154.
