A joint venture of Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, and Drillsearch Energy Ltd. has added to its successful drilling campaign with two discoveries in the western flank of the Cooper basin in permit PEL 91 in South Australia (OGJ Online, Mar. 31, 2014).
The group’s Stunsail-1 wildcat and Pennington-2 appraisal well have both hit multiple oil columns.
Stunsail, drilled in about the center of the permit, encountered a 6-m oil column in the primary Namur sandstone target plus an additional 4-m column in the mid-Namur section and shows within the Birkhead formation.
Beach, as operator, ran two drill stem tests. The best, across a 15-m Namur interval recovered 46 bbl of oil in a 4-hr operation equating to a rate in excess of 250 b/d.
Stunsail-1 has now been cased and suspended as a future oil producer. The field is likely to be developed in the 2014-15 financial year.
Beach estimates a gross reserve value of 1.6 million bbl and says a stand-alone development will cost about $4 million (Aus.).
The Pennington-2 well lies 10 km south of Stunsail and 250 m southwest the Pennington-1 discovery. A 10-m net oil pay zone was intersected in the McKinlay and Namur reservoirs.
This was followed by Pennington North-1 about 600 m north of Pennington-1. The McKinlay and Namur were water-bearing, but strong oil shows were found in the Birkhead. A 4-hr DST flowed the 125 boe/d. This well was also cased and suspended as a future producer.
The results have boosted 2P estimated gross reserves for Pennington field to 2.7 million bbl from 1.7 million bbl.
Development is likely to cost $6 million (Aus.) and will take place during mid-2015.
Beach has 40% of PEL 91 while Drillsearch has 60%