The junior's first permit within the Vulcan Sub-basin, which it's calling Project Condor, contains attractive leads in the same proven producing basin that contains the Montara, Jabiru, Skula and Challis oil fields.

 

Carnarvon's knowledge of the geology has already been boosted by the Cygnus 3D survey Polarcus did over 682sq.km of the AC/P62 acreage, which the junior expects to create a "new standard" in the interpretation of the Vulcan's prospectivity.

 

Permits AC17-2 and AC17-3 in the Vulcan Sub-basin and AC17-4 and AC17-5 in the south toward the Browse Basin, nominated by industry and within the Australian government's 2017 release, are also covered by Polarcus' Cygnus 3D multi-client dataset.

 

Polarcus said there was "substantial ongoing interest" in exploration in the released areas of the Vulcan Sub-basin, a notoriously difficult area for imaging.

 

Indeed, Carnarvon said this morning that previous seismic interpretation in this area has been "hampered by poor quality vintage seismic data".

 

"With existing production and infrastructure in place in this relatively shallow water area, the available blocks in this brownfields environment provide exactly the kind of infrastructure led exploration which E&P companies are looking for in the current environment," Polarcus said.

 

Carnarvon's new block is in about 100m of water, which means the potential for lower-cost drilling and field developments.

 

The junior plans on maturing the block's prospects with a number of geoscience workflows as part of the work program, including a satellite seep survey, high-resolution biostratigraphy, fluid inclusion analysis, petrophysical reviews, burial modelling, fault seal analysis, rock physics analysis and seismic inversion of the Cygnus 3D.

 

"Carnarvon has identified several large, robust Jurassic leads, over multiple reservoir levels," the company said this morning.

 

"There is also potential for secondary playsin the shallower, Late Cretaceous stratigraphythat will be the focus of Carnarvon's ongoing technical investigation."

 

Managing director Adrian Cook said AC/P62 was another demonstration of his team's ability to acquire oil-prone exploration permits within proven petroleum systems, and looks forward to seeing the next phase of their technical work as they work the prospects up to drillable status.