Australia
Offshore Exploration
Envoi has been engaged by Australia-based ASX-listed Pilot Energy Ltd (“Pilot”), to assist in their search for a partner for their 100% owned and operated WA-481-P Permit, situated ~ 350 km north of Perth, offshore Western Australia.
This large 8,605 km2 Permit covers the under-explored offshore part of the North Perth Basin, where water depths range from less than 50 metres in the prospective inboard area, to over 1,000 metres on its western margins. The Permit captures the Abrolhos Sub-basin which lies parallel to the Dandaragan Trough onshore, separated by the Beagle Ridge.
The conventional opportunity has also now been enhanced by the award to Pilot of the new G-12-AP permit for Carbon Storage covering a total 7,400 km2, incorporating the central part of the WA-481-P Licence area. This offers significant value potential under new government rules requiring new industry to include clear CS storage provision. The value of any oil and gas field is enhanced by additional revenue generation beyond hydrocarbon production from Pilot’s CCS project where the estimated storage capability is over 80 million tonnes of CO2.
The existing well penetrations offshore are not only sparse but drilled in the 1980s and 2000s on old data and did not target the deeper Lower Permian ‘Kingia’ sandstone play fairway. This play was subsequently unlocked in the onshore sub-basin where new multi-Tcf gas resources in several large fields have been discovered since 2014. Significantly, Pilot’s work shows that the Kingia Play does extend offshore in WA-481-P, but it was not effectively targeted by the legacy wells. Furthermore, Pilot’s remapping of the existing 3D and 2D seismic in their offshore Permit, integrated with the new geological framework and well analysis, has highlighted that a large deep ‘Kingia’ play closure remains untested below the TD of the old Leander Reef-1 well drilled in 1984. This undrilled Lower Permian ‘Kingia’ play prospect alone is estimated to contain between 450 and 700 Bcf recoverable gas resources (based on the sum of ‘mean’ and ‘best estimate’ numbers) in the Permit.
As part of Permit commitment, Pilot will acquire a new 3D seismic survey to enhance the existing interpretation and enable selection of a suitable drilling location to test the primary Leander Reef Deep Permian prospect. Additionally, three Irwin River Coal Measure sandstone (IRCM) prospects and leads have been mapped in the shallower ‘inshore’ eastern part of the Permit, where they lie on-strike with the existing Cliff Head and Xanadu oil analogues. Mapped on sparse 2D seismic and aeromagnetics, the Cliff Head SW, Babbler and Brahminy prospects are estimated capable of containing a combined 41 MMbbls prospective resource potential, needing 3D to mature. Their proximity to the large Geraldton Fault also raises the possibility of a late gas charge from the lower Triassic Kockatea shale similar to Dongara Field. Additional prospectivity in the Permit includes several gas-prone leads, providing running-room subsequent to additional 3D seismic coverage. Pilot wishes to extend the area of 3D seismic acquisition to the east and improve the imaging of the follow-on targets mapped on existing 2D seismic within the shallower part of WA-481-P, on trend with Cliff Head oil field.
Pilot seeks a partner interested in earning equity by funding at least the new 3D seismic survey, estimated to cost around A$ 10 million (~US$ 6.5 million equiv.) with an ‘option’ to earn a further material interest in the Permit by committing to participate in a subsequent well, estimated to cost US$ 30 million (~ A$ 46 million equiv.).
