Large Cooper Basin acreage awarded to Australian Energy
Posted: 8 November 2005
One of the largest prospective Cooper Basin gas acreage releases has been awarded to a new unlisted Australian resources company, Adelaide Energy Pty Ltd.
Spearheading Adelaide Energy is veteran Cooper Basin explorer and former Delhi Petroleum and Stuart Petroleum executive, Mr Rod Hollingsworth.
The south-western perimeter of the acreage – the 1600 square kilometre CO2005-A block in the Nappamerri Trough – is just 25 kilometres northeast of the Moomba gas processing plant.
The area is the last major petroleum block to be released under the South Australian Government initiative launched in 1998 to attract aggressive, independent oil and gas explorers into the South Australian section of the Cooper Basin .
In a break from traditional Cooper Basin gas exploration, Adelaide Energy has foreshadowed involving international expertise, particularly from the United States , in implementing specialist exploration and drilling programs for the block.
A public float of the new company and its assets is not envisaged for at least six months.
“The block is surrounded on three sides by some of Australia’s more prolific onshore producing gas fields and high intensity modern day exploration activity,” Adelaide Energy Director, Mr Hollingsworth said.
“Significantly, the acreage covers one of the two primary source areas for gas for the wider Cooper Basin blocks in South Australia,” he said.
“As the gas in this area is held in tight sands, only seven wells have been drilled. Most of them were drilled decades ago, as gas exploration and production has historically exploited the more permeable reservoirs to the north, south and west.
“However drilling techniques and exploration modelling have exploded in the past 10 years and virtually all of the new and successful onshore United States exploration and production is coming from exploiting tight oil and gas reservoirs.”
Mr Hollingsworth said Adelaide Energy would seek partnerships with these experienced overseas drillers and producers to rapidly prove up the acreage once native title and other regulatory issues were finalised.
Adelaide Energy’s first well is expected to be drilled in the third quarter of 2006, initially targeting potential oil accumulations in the overlying Eromanga sediments, with subsequent wells testing the deeper gas formations in the Cooper Basin down to a total depth of around 3,000 metres.
“We expect that structural analysis, deviated drilling and fracture stimulation will be the norm by which Adelaide Energy emerges as a successful explorer and producer in the Nappamerri,” Mr Hollingsworth said.
“These are now recognised gas production techniques and, combined with more modern seismic and interpretative exploration than has been previously applied to these sands, we are confident of establishing a new production province close to Moomba,” he said.
The other Directors on the Adelaide Energy Board include corporate lawyer, Mr Neville Martin, and corporate advisor, Mr Mark Lindh, both of Adelaide . Mr Martin, a partner with the law firm Minter Ellison, has played a leading role in the formation of a number of oil and gas exploration companies and was a founding Director of Stuart Petroleum Limited.
Mr Lindh is a director of Rundle Capital Partners and played a leading role in the formation of Sundance Energy Australia Limited. He is a key financial adviser to a number of resource companies.
Posted by Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com
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