RE: RE: ready set ...Business Wire
Eleven (11) Well Back-to-Back Drilling Program Begins Adjoining ACOR's 13.83 % Carried Working Interest in South Australia
CISCO, Texas, Mar 02, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd. (herein called ACOR) (OTCBB:AUCAF) is pleased to announce that Beach Energy & Cooper Energy have announced today that the eleven (11) well back-to-back drilling program has begun on PEL 92 adjoining ACOR's PEL 112 in the Cooper Basin.
The drilling campaign comprises five development wells (three in the Parsons Oil Field and two in the Butlers Oil Field) and six wildcat exploration wells.
The eleven (11) well drilling program is located in the highly successful Western Oil Margin in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin.
The Parsons-3 is the first well to kick off the eleven well drilling program. The Parsons-3 is an appraisal/development well that will be targeting the Namur oil reservoir to the north of the Parsons-1 discovery well. The well will be drilled to a total depth of 1,410 metres and is expected to take 9 days to drill and complete.
Parsons-3 is the first well in an eleven well back-to-back drilling program in the PEL 92 area in the western flank of the Cooper Basin. The Parsons oil field is currently producing approximately 1,100 barrels of oil per day (100% JV) from two wells in the Namur reservoir.
It is expected that the additional Parsons wells will accelerate production and increase reserves in the field. Successful drilling will be accompanied by an upgrade of the Parsons surface facilities to handle the expected increase in oil production. Oil production from Parsons is exported via the flow-line to Tantanna. These wells are expected to accelerate production of the 800,000 barrels of Proved Reserves (100% Joint Venture) and increase recovery over the field's economic life.
The two wells are forecast to initially add 1,000 barrels of oil per day (100% Joint Venture) to PEL 92 production, which is currently around 5,000 barrels per day.
Attractive Exploration Targets
Exploration prospects to be targeted by the eleven (11) well drilling program range in size from approximately 0.5 to 5.5 million barrels of oil Prospective Resources (100% Joint Venture).
PEL 92 transports crude via the PEL 92 to Tantanna flow-line, which has enable production from PEL 92 to continue during the recent flooding as the flow-line removes the need for offtake trucking.
The Kudnarri Bridge has been constructed to provide vehicle access to drilling locations whilst the Cooper Creek is flowing. Work is also underway to maintain supply to the drilling rigs in the event that further flooding or local rain temporarily limits road access. Contingency plans include the setting up of supply hubs on the western side of the Cooper Creek for services such as wireline logging and cementing.
About the Western Margin Oil Trend:
The western margin of the Cooper/Eromanga Basin has become a hotspot of exploration activity.
The western margin is an attractive exploration target for two reasons.
1. It is one of the few places where hydrocarbons from Cooper Basin source rocks can migrate into traps in the overlying Eromanga Basin. In most places, a cap rock at the unconformity between the Cooper and Eromanga prevents this happening, but along the western margin the cap rock is faulted, eroded or otherwise missing.
2. The western margin is only lightly explored. Santos made oil discoveries at Charo and Callabonna in the early 1990s, but it left thousands of miles unexplored because of Santos priority at the time on gas exploration.
Exploration in recent years has produced a series of oil discoveries, beginning with Beach's Sellicks discovery in PEL 92 in 2002.
Total oil produced from successful oil field discoveries in the Western Oil Margin are now approaching in excess of 23 million barrels of oil in approximately seven years.
The story of the Cooper/Eromanga Basin's western margin is still just beginning. Knowledge of the size and types of oil traps is still evolving, including the possibility of stratigraphic traps of larger size than traditional anticlines and faulted anticlines.
The possibility of larger discoveries, combined with the Cooper/Eromanga Basin's high exploration success rates, make the western margin even more attractive for explorers contemplating an entry into the region.
Click on link below to see map of recent new oil field discoveries in the Western Oil Margin.
https://www.aussieoil.com/site/acor-map.pdf
Why is the Drilling on PEL 92 important to PEL 112?
Because part of the eleven (11) drilling program is targeting structures further to the west & closer to PEL 112. If successful, this should result in real value enhancement for ACOR's PEL 112 holdings.
About ACOR's PEL 112
Holloman Energy, the operator of PEL 112 has identified 38 leads on PEL 112. Five of the leads were targeted for evaluation and were determined to have mean unrisked in-place prospective resources ranging from 56 MMbbl to 70 MMbbl for a 100% working interest. The mean unrisked recoverable prospective resource potential for the five leads range from 19 MMbbl to 24 MMbbl and the total mean unrisked recoverable prospective resource potential for the five leads is greater than 100 MMbbl.
According to Holloman Energy, an indicative economic study was conducted by ISIS Petroleum Consultants Pty. Ltd. ("Isis") of Australia, an independent and internationally recognized petroleum geological, geophysical and engineering firm. The results of the study were that the NPV@10% for a 100% working interest in each hypothetical PEL 112 oil discovery of 5 MMbbl recoverable resource was approximately US$100M, assuming a peak field oil production rate of 5,000 BOPD, a peak oil production rate per well of 500 BOPD and an oil price of $70 / bbl. The capital and operating cost assumptions were based on current costs in the basin.
ACOR owns a 13.83% working interest under PEL 112 & PEL 444 and is 100% fully carried for its 13.83% working interest in the next 2 wells drilled on either block. ACOR will pay their proportionate part on any exploration cost thereafter. PEL 112 and PEL 444 comprise approximately 4,544 Sq. kilometers or approximately 1.125 million gross acres and are located in Australia's most prolific onshore oil & gas producing basin, the Cooper/Eromanga Basin.
About Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd.:
ACOR management draws no cash salary. ACOR has NO LONG-TERM DEBT. ACOR's principal assets consist of approximately 15,440,116 gross surface acres of overriding royalty interest and approximately 8,561,007 gross acres of working interests, located Onshore Australia in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin and Offshore Australia in the Gippsland Basin in the Bass Strait.
ACOR is a publicly traded oil company trading on the NASDAQ OTC Bulletin Board Exchange under the trading symbol "AUCAF."
Summary:
Australia is a "hot spot" for oil & gas exploration and ACOR is positioned for possible "Company-Maker" discoveries. ACOR's working interests and overriding royalty interests are located offshore & onshore in the best producing basins.
Visit our website at www.aussieoil.com.