Australia: Tap Taps into Tallaganda

Australia: Tap Taps into Tallaganda

Tap Oil Limited (Tap) advises that at 0900 hours (AWST) today the Atwood Eagle semi-submersible drilling rig commenced drilling the Tallaganda-1 exploration well in the WA-351-P permit.

The Tallaganda-1 prospect straddles both the WA-351-P and WA-335-P permits in the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia. The well will target 0.8 to 1.3 Tcf (mean to P10) of gas within WA-351-P (Tap estimate).

The prospect will test the gas potential of sandstones in the prolific Triassic age, Mungaroo Formation, in a well defined horst block as imaged by high quality modern 3D seismic data. This is the primary play type of the North West Shelf.

The well will be drilled as a vertical well in a water depth of 1,141 m and is expected to take 37 days (trouble free) to drill with a projected total depth of 4,250 m. Weekly updates will be provided on Wednesdays during drilling operations.

Tap’s cost for the well will be carried up to a cap of $10 million following Tap’s farmout of 25% of its participating interest in the permit to BHP Billiton Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty Ltd in 2011.

Tap’s Managing Director/CEO, Mr Troy Hayden, said:

 “We are pleased to have commenced the Tallaganda-1 well which has the potential to deliver a resource multiple times larger than Tap’s current 2P reserves.  Success at Tallaganda-1 will also give greater certainty as to the prospectivity of the Triassic potential on the permit.”

Background

The Operator completed a detailed assessment of the plays, prospects and leads in the permit in 2010 including the 3D seismic acquired in 2008. Further leads and prospects have been defined in the Triassic Mungaroo Formation which Tap has assessed as a 2-3 Tcf combined speculative resource on block.

Additional leads have been identified in WA-351-P in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, both of which are productive elsewhere in the Carnarvon Basin. Current indications are that this shallower potential is larger, but higher risk, than the Triassic in this permit. Further work will be done on these objectives.

 WA-351-P Joint Venture Participants

BHP Billiton Petroleum Pty Ltd (Operator)

BHP Billiton Petroleum (Northwest Shelf) Pty Ltd 55%

Apache Northwest Pty Ltd 25%

Tap (Shelfal) Pty Ltd 20%

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Site: Tap Oil, March 1, 2012