Central's minimum $A9.5 million initial public offering closing significantly higher at $10.6 million.
The company has 650 registered shareholders, with strong institutional support coming from Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Europe and the UK.
This interest has been spurred by Central’s unique approach to petroleum exploration. The company has two unconventional goals – a commercial helium discovery and the establishment of a GTL plant.
Central also claims to possess the largest exploration acreage of any company in Australia. It has rights to 165,000 square kilometres of the largely unexplored Amadeus, Pedirka and Wiso Basins in central Australia.
Subject to farm-ins and additional capital raisings, the company plans to undertake a six-well drilling program over the next two years targeting 300 million barrels of oil, 3.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and 105 billion cubic feet of helium.
Managing director John Heugh told EnergyReview.net the company expects to spud its first well on either the Avalon or Blamore prospects in the Pedirka Basin permit EP93.
“We expect to drill our first well before the end of this financial year,” he said.
“That’s only a few months away, so you couldn’t say we plan to be sitting on our hands after the listing,” he said.
The company’s first two wells will each target up to 100 million barrels of potentially recoverable resources and will be funded by the capital raised during the IPO. The funds will also contribute towards a pre-drilling seismic program in the Amadeus Basin.
In addition, Heugh said Central was in discussions with several potential farm-in partners, based in both Australia and overseas.
Central has already signed a memorandum of understanding with BOC Global Helium to jointly exploit any commercial sources of helium in the Amadeus Basin. Pacific Oil and Gas proved that helium existed in Magee-1, which was drilled in 1992.
The reservoir, known as the Heavitree Quartzite, contains 6.2% helium mixed with a number of inert gases including 43.6% nitrogen. Methane content is around 39%. The high helium percentage is significant. In Russia, Poland and New Mexico, amounts as low as 0.3% helium are produced commercially.
A successful helium play first needs a reservoir and trap sitting close to a radioactive basement source. Because helium is very mobile, the reservoir should also be overlain by a very efficient “plastic” seal.
The company also expects that GTL technology would play a pivotal role in monetising any major gas discovery in its central Australian acreage.
Heugh considers that crude oil and GTL-derived diesel, jet fuel and naphtha could be shipped out from central Australia on the recently completed rail link from Alice Springs to Port Darwin.
