Norway’s oil company Statoil has signed a farm-in agreement with BP, acquiring a 30 percent equity share in four exploration licences offshore South Australia.
“With this agreement we gain access to a vast, underexplored area with high-impact potential,” says Pål Haremo , senior vice president for Global new ventures in Exploration.
“This is in line with our strategy, supporting our long term growth ambitions by providing early access at scale in a new and promising basin, positioning us for high impact exploration,” says Haremo.
The four licenses EPP 37, 38, 39 and 40 are located in the frontier Ceduna Sub Basin within the Great Australian Bight, off the coast of South Australia, and covers an area of more than 24,000 square kilometres of acreage.
BP has completed a 12 000 square kilometre 3D seismic survey in the license area and is currently finalising the processing of this data. Next steps include maturation of drillable prospects and continued environmental studies. The work programme includes drilling up to four wells within the largely untested license area. BP will continue to operate the exploration licenses.
The commercial terms of the transaction are confidential and it is subject to Australian government approval.
Statoil already has a presence in Australia following the farm-in into Petrofrontier’s four existing and two pending onshore exploration permits in the South Georgina Basin in the Northern Territories in a joint venture project.