Beach Provides Feb Drilling Report (Australia)

Australia’s Beach Energy has released the following monthly drilling report for February 2012.

Beach Operated Cooper Basin Unconventional Gas Program

Workover operations have successfully cleaned out the Encounter-1 wellbore in PEL 218 (Beach 100%). Tubing will now be installed ready for the fracture stimulation activities which are now expected to occur in early April once the fracture stimulation crew has completed a program with the Cooper Basin Joint Venture (Beach 20.21%).

The Moonta-1 well (PEL 218, Beach 100%) continued drilling during February, and is currently at a depth of 2,924 metres and waiting on weather. Once access is re-established and drilling resumes, it is expected that Moonta will take about 25 days to reach its planned total depth. This well is the first in a campaign of at least five wells designed to delineate the resource potential of the shale and basin centred gas exploration volumes within the Nappamerri Trough.

Beach Operated Cooper-Eromanga Oil and Gas

Ten of the eleven successful wells from the 2011 drilling campaign have now been completed for production, and are being progressively brought on-line as capacity allows.

Two exploration wells (Coolawang-1 and Coolangatta-2) were drilled in Beach-operated permits during the report period.

The Coolawang-1 exploration well (PEL 106B, Beach 50%) was the third of five planned exploration wells designed to test for stratigraphically trapped gas on the Patchawarra Trough margin, and to gather additional data on the Patchawarra Formation deep coal gas play. The well cored a 29 metre interval of the Patchawarra Formation recovering approximately 8 metres of Patchawarra coal that will be evaluated as part of the Joint Venture’s unconventional gas strategy in this area. A sandstone with gas shows was tested and flowed at a stabilised rate of 4.5 million cubic feet per day with no water and without decline. Coolawang-1 has been cased and suspended as a successful gas discovery, and two additional sandstones with gas shows will be evaluated in a production testing program. A further two wells are planned in this campaign. The rig will move to the Haslam-1 location as soon as weather conditions allow.

The Coolangatta-2 exploration well (ATP 633P, Beach 50%) was drilled to test the oil potential of the Coolangatta structure updip of Coolangatta-1 (drilled in 2008). A drill stem test of the Murta Formation was conducted to test oil shows, but recovered only formation water with traces of oil. Coolangatta-2 was subsequently plugged and abandoned.

The rig has since moved to and commenced drilling at the Marsden-1 location in PEL-95 (Beach 50%). The well had reached a depth of 1,908 metres in the Toolachee Formation before heavy rain in the Cooper Basin region forced road closures and a temporary shutdown of drilling operations. Access is expected to be restored within about two weeks following which drilling operations will resume.

Santos Operated Cooper Basin Oil and Gas Development

Two gas development wells were drilled during the month; Tindilpie-14 in South Australia (Beach 20.21%) and Durham Downs North-3 in Queensland (Beach 23.20%), with both cased and suspended as future gas producers.

Two oil wells, Charo-8 and Charo-9, were drilled as the first of a planned nine-well program to develop the Charo Field (Beach 20.21%) in South Australia. Both wells successfully intersected the target mid-Birkhead reservoir; Charo-8 has been cased and suspended and Charo-9 is waiting on road access to finish off case and suspend operations.

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LNG World News Staff, March 15, 2012