Highlights
- Evaluation of latest 3D seismic data has resulted in an unrivalled spread of highly attractive prospects
- Joint Venture now targeting five strategic prospects containing a combined material resource of 623 million barrels of oil equivalent (gross, unrisked Pmean)
- Nearby upside of 7.78 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.25 billion barrels of oil already identified, with such scale being rare within the Australian energy sector
Carnarvon Energy has provided an update on the work being undertaken within the Bedout Exploration Permits (WA-435-P, WA-436-P, WA-437-P and WA-438-P) based on the interpretation of the latest 3D seismic data.
Five prospects are currently preferred – the Ara, Wallace, Wendolene, Starbuck and the Pavo South prospects - and are being high-graded for future drilling campaigns (Figure 1). These prospects have been strategically selected for their potential to build resource scale, de-risk significant prospectivity within nearby clusters and strengthen a number of development opportunities.
The gas opportunity within each of the five prospects is significant, and presents an attractive case for the Dorado Phase 2 development currently being matured by the Joint Venture, as outlined in the table below:
* Prospective resources are the estimated quantities of petroleum that may potentially be recovered by the application of a future development project(s) and relate to undiscovered accumulations. These estimates have both a risk of discovery and a risk of development.
Carnarvon Managing Director and CEO, Adrian Cook, commented:
'As evidenced by Carnarvon’s recent partial divestment of a 10% interest in its Bedout assets to CPC Corporation, Taiwan, the Bedout Sub-basin represents Australia's most prospective and exciting offshore exploration acreage.
The latest interpretation results emphasise the substantial amount of prospective running room to be had if any one of the identified resource clusters are successful.
As we progressively evaluate the latest 3D seismic data, we have the difficult task of deciding which of the high graded targets to drill first across a plethora of highly attractive opportunities.'
New data
In the past 18 months, a significant amount of new data has been added to the Joint Venture’s Bedout database, including:
- final processing products for both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Keraudren North Extension 3D data sets acquired in 2021 and 2022 respectively;
- Dorado multi-azimuth (MAZ) seismic processing data set, which combined the Keraudren, Archer and Capreolus 3D seismic data sets over the Dorado Field and surrounding acreage;
- large areas of the original 2014 Capreolus 3D data that have been reprocessed for improved prospect definition;
- multiple Quantitative Interpretation (QI) and seismic inversion projects, which aim to predict lithology and fluid content away from the well bore through amplitude analysis; and
- Pavo-1 and Apus-1 post-well analysis, which significantly strengthens sub-surface understanding.
Identified clusters
The Ara prospect, located in the northern half of the WA-435-P Exploration Permit, is a prospective resource that could contain 549 Bscf of gas and 91 million barrels of condensate (Pmean, gross). With a very robust 37% chance of geological success, Ara could form the basis for a new gas-centric cluster in the north of the Bedout Sub-basin, and significantly de-risk nearby prospective resources contained within a concentric gathering system. Prospects within the Ara Cluster include Bandy, Yuma, Bara and Wiwaxy.
Similarly, the Starbuck prospect aims to target 113 million barrels of oil and significant associated gas. Starbuck boasts an attractive geological chance of success of 58%. Success at Starbuck would encourage new oil development in the east of the WA-436-P Exploration Permit. Success would equally de-risk the identified Fall Line, Coho, Tacoma, Stampeders, and many other prospects, all of which could feed into a future Starbuck development project.
Three additional areas have been identified by the Joint Venture around Wendolene, Wallace and Pavo South, with the Wendolene and Wallace clusters primarily gas-focused and the Pavo South cluster more liquids-rich. The Wendolene area includes prospects such as Mensa, Murray and Avoca. The Wallace area has opportunities like Sampati, Bottlebrush South and Calendula North, and nearby Pavo South are the Torin, Orona and Taurus prospects.
Future exploration drilling
The Joint Venture has plans for further exploration drilling in the Bedout Exploration Permits in the medium term.
Discussions have been maturing with respect to securing drilling slots on a semi-submersible drilling rig to drill two or three wells in the WA-435-P, WA-436-P and/or WA-438-P Exploration Permits.
The precise timing for the next round of exploration drilling in the Bedout Exploration Permits is dependent on the timing for regulatory approvals, and particularly the new consultation process relating to the preparation of Environment Plans, as well as customary joint venture approvals.
Source: Carnarvon Energy
