Long criticised for the size of its asset inventory, VicPet has decided to focus on its new core areas and has put its US properties on the market. It is aiming to sell them off by the end of June.
The company still has a relatively large exploration portfolio, but its story is now much simpler and should be easier to sell to investors.
VicPet aims to drill 26 exploration wells in the next 12 months, including 10 Cooper oil wells and 14 Surat CSM wells.
Kopcheff said the medium-term potential of the company's CSM assets was very substantial, while its western Cooper oil wells could collectively be a near-term company maker if an oil trend that could hold up 100 million barrels of oil in place could be proved up.
New field development from the company's 40% owned, Wirraway and Growler oil fields in PEL 104 and 111 (both operated by VicPet) has come on stream and is now producing around 200 barrels of oil per day. VicPet's share of reserves in this area is estimated at 1.16 million barrels.
Upcoming drilling at nearby prospects could increase VicPet's reserves substantially and will give indications on the prospectivity of the area's Jurassic oil fairway. Kopcheff said he was hopeful that VicPet was on the verge of developing a new Jurassic oil province, and producing substantial volumes of light, sweet crude. So far the company has had a 75% exploration success rate in this area.
The company also has exploration prospects in PEL 115 southwest of Moomba, where it is operator and has 25% equity. This permit holds the Mirage and Ventura discoveries.
Elsewhere in the Cooper, VicPet is working with Santos and Bow Energy in southwest Queensland, and the partners recently made an oil discovery at their 2MMbbl Cuisinier-1 well.
The next well, Hudson-1, could hold up to 10MMbbl, according to Kopcheff, and if it holds oil, it will confirm a trend that holds several attractive targets lying between Cuisinier and Hudson. VicPet holds 15% in these blocks and is free-carried on the next few wells.
In another part of Queensland, the Surat, VicPet is working on two major CSM projects.
In their Don Juan project, VicPet and operator Bow Energy are targeting 200 billion cubic feet in 3P reserves by the end of this year. This permit is immediately west of Sunshine Gas' Lacerta project and it appears to lie on the same coal measures trend.
Meanwhile, in the Marcus project, VicPet has teamed up with CSM pioneer and pacesetter Queensland Gas Company to prove up 50Bcf in 3P reserves by the end of the year. QGC believes that there could be up to 1Tcf of gas in place in this block.
Kopcheff believes the company's alignment with QGC is a coup for VicPet. QGC is working aggressively on Marcus and has taken a 7.1% stake in VicPet. A QGC founding director has also been appointed as VicPet's chairman.
"The Surat coal seam gas interests are very much of interest," Kopcheff told PNN.
"The planned Gladstone LNG plant provides the dynamics for access to market for all Queensland CSG players, as well as exposure international gas prices."
Kopcheff said he believed VicPet was undervalued and the company had greater production than several CSM companies with higher share prices.
