The Adelaide-based major has recently completed a successful two-well appraisal program at its 100%-owned Bodalla South field, which it says has added 250,000 barrels of oil reserves.
On clean-up, Beach said the Bodalla-17 well free-flowed 4167bopd through a 5cm flow-line, while Bodalla South-16 produced 230bopd in a ½-inch choke.
As well as boosting reserves, Beach said the two appraisal wells also opened up the northern portion of the field to further drilling.
“The discovery and production gains being achieved at Bodalla underpin the success of our decision four years ago to adopt a new exploration and development approach for Bodalla,” Beach managing director Reg Nelson said on Friday.
This approach coupled 3D seismic technology with more intensive drilling to maximise the untapped revenue and volume yields of these established fields, according to Nelson.
“Significantly – when added to our interests elsewhere in the basin including in the Santos-led Cooper Oil program – these successful Bodalla South results mean
Beach is now benefiting on two fronts from strategies implemented to increase production from long-established Australian oil fields.
“The combined track record success of this approach in two adjoining petroleum provinces gives us a very high level of confidence of further extractive upside for some years in both Bodalla and the nearby Kenmore fields – all wholly owned by
Beach,” Nelson said.
Bodalla South-16 is located more than 900m northwest of the nearest producer in the field.
“As expected, this portion of the field shows no evidence of drainage by existing wells, opening the potential for more drilling to access oil in this portion of the field,” Nelson said.
Bodalla South-17 intersected high quality oil pay within the Basal Jurassic interval and the Hutton Sandstone, in a structure defined on 3-D seismic.
These new production wells will be connected to the existing Bodalla South processing facilities and are expected to contribute to production within a month.
The drilling rig is currently preparing to move to the Nudgee-1 location, the first well in a three-well exploration campaign in ATP-269P (in which Beach holds a 46.95% stake).
