"We will keep on keeping on," Holliday told Energy News
"While Chevron was a great partner it must be remembered that prior to them coming in Beach, as the operator, and Icon, as its partner, drilled the most successful shale gas well in the Cooper Basin, Halifax-1, which produced 4.5 million standard cubic feet a day.
"We are disappointed they are gone, but it is not the end of the world. Beach is looking for another partner, and things are pretty good."
Having received the news at 5pm last Friday Holliday said Beach and Icon hadn't had much time to discuss future plans so far, but he said the joint operating committee would meet this week to discuss what the work program should be for 2015-16.
"The work in this financial year will be very low. We have met all of our work commitments in the tenement, so there is no prescriptive work commitment outstanding in relation to ATP 855," Holliday said.
The commitments have been completed to the end of October 2016, and the next step could include further well testing or new 3D seismic to define possible sweetspots.
"We have an enormous amount of information from the four wells we have recently tested, so it is a matter of sitting down with Beach and working out what we do know that Chevron has departed," he said.
The practical impact of Chevron leaving changes little, aside from future cost exposure for the partners, Holliday said.
Realistically the goal remains unchanged: to understand the subsurface picture, and then to work out how to better define the resources in a defined area where flow rates are expected to be higher, and then look at pilot production and early gas sales.
The company has around $20 million in cash and expects a substantial tax refund could be delivered if the ATO delivers a R&D refund.
The Nappamerri Trough gas project is a long-term ambition, and Icon says its gas sales agreement with the Chinese which remains alive, although Icon's heady talk of LNG sales to China within a few years at the GSA's signing has been shown to be hopelessly optimistic.
Icon originally hoped CSG resources would meet the need, but resources in ATP 626 proved to be sub-commercial, so it now hopes to prove a substantial shale gas resource.
But to make any forward movement Icon needs to certify 2.2 trillion cubic feet of 2P gas reserves, and then take a final investment decision to develop them, while its Chinese partners, Shantou SinoEnergy, need approval for the receiving terminal to be built.
"Should those two things align we have to think seriously about 5-10 years of gas sales to China, but it is a longer term project that won't happen in the next 3-7 years," Holliday said.
To get to that point, Holliday believes Beach and Icon will probably start selling gas into the domestic market, following from pilot wells to help derisk the Nappameri trough gas.
"There are many steps before we could even consider a field development program," he said.
ATP 855 remains Icon's flagship, because its Victorian projects remain in limbo due to that state's moratorium on any drilling, although it has a number of other legacy assets.
Holliday says in terms of near term action ATP 594 offers some hope, with an Eromanga Basin oil prospect being developed.
"We have been doing a lot of work on that, and it looks like it is an oil prospect. Now we have some clarity over ATP 855 and as we have some capital we will look at what we can do in ATP 594 in terms of oil exploration to see if the prospect has an oil outcome," he said.
Any oil discovery would give Icon some much needed revenue.
ATP 594 is located near the township of Quilpie, west of Beach's Bodella South and Kenmore fields, and was last drilled in 2005 by Icon, with the Taylor Franks-1 well intersecting Permian gas shows.
