The Donga Prospect is interpreted from seismic data to contain up to a potential three million barrels of recoverable oil.
Once the well is complete, Bow will take over operatorship of the permit, with Oilex to remain as field operator, Prefontaine told EnergyReview.net yesterday.
“We’re only a small company and still not in a position quite yet to operate oil fields,” he said.
“But in the future, if the field performs well and finds other fields, then it is something we will be looking at.”
Donga-3 was Bow’s fourth well since listing and the first to show signs of becoming a producer.
“It did recover some water, which is not a good sign, but it’s something we’ll know more about in production testing over the next month,” Prefontaine said.
He said two wells drilled on the same structure during the 1960s and 70s also yielded water and oil, but he hoped modern well techniques could calibrate the other wells.
Bow Energy initially held 100% of ATP 805P, but farmed out 50% to Oilex and later, a further 7.5% to Victoria Petroleum. This left the company with 42.5% stake, but only 5% of the drilling costs.
“This is the kind of low-risk approach we take to everything,” Prefontaine said.
“It takes the pressure off the shareholders and minimises the risk to the company if it doesn’t work out.”
With that in mind, Prefontaine is not overly concerned about Bow’s three previous wells, all dusters – Pinnacle West-1 also in the Surat, Pickabooba South-1 in the Clarence-Morton Bay and Gats-1 in WA 261P.
“Pickabooba South was a technical success, if not a commercial one,” he said.
“The residual oil we discovered did uncover a new oil play, so we plan to undertake more work there. It’s a shallow play that only needs a small rig.”
Pickabooba South-1, in the Clarence-Moreton Basin, was drilled to total depth of 1152m in August, during which an oil show with 25% fluorescence with slow diffuse crush cut was recorded at 1118m. The oil show stopped at the top of the Ipswich Coal measures at 1119m.
Prefontaine said Bow’s focus in the coming year would rest on the Surat Basin and Cooper/Eromanga basins, where the company plans to expand its acreage and conduct more farmins.
“We do like this area [Cooper/Eromanga] and our staff know it well,” he said. “Bow has an aggressive drilling campaign there and is looking at drilling six wells over the next year.”
The company, in partnership with Victoria Petroleum, is currently reprocessing seismic in ATP 752 and expects the permit could be granted to them in as little as four-months time. This means drilling could start in the first half of next year, Prefontaine said.
