Quadrant lines up new exploration well off Australia

Australian oil and gas company Quadrant Energy has decided to drill the Dorado-1 exploration well offshore Australia.

Carnarvon Petroleum, Quadrant’s partner, said on Thursday that the companies are committed to acquiring long-lead items for the Dorado-1 well and that planning for the project had already started.

The company added that the drilling would begin in the second half of 2017.

The Dorado-1 well location is within the WA-437-P exploration permit on Australia’s North-West Shelf. The permit already holds the Roc-1 and Roc-2 wells which appraised the Roc gas-condensate discovery in the Caley section.

Quadrant is the operator of the permit with an 80 percent interest while Carnarvon owns the remaining 20 percent.

Dorado-1 has several targets. The primary target is the already proven Caley Sandstone which Carnarvon estimates to contain a prospective mean resource of 545 bscf of gas and 31 mmbls of condensate.

The secondary target is the Milne Sandstone which may contain equally attractive resources but, according to Carnarvon, they come with a slightly higher risk.

The cost estimate for the well is not yet finalized. However, Carnarvon said that the expectation is that the Dorado-1 will be drilled at a lower cost than the recently drilled Roc and Phoenix South wells due to reducing cost structures and a shallower target depth.

Managing Director, Adrian Cook, said: “This is a tremendous opportunity to test another quality prospect in the Bedout Sub-basin. Confirming significant hydrocarbon volumes with this well would strongly underpin the economic proposition in this basin.

“This well could also play an important part in determining the future development scenarios for the Roc and Phoenix South gas and condensate discoveries.

“A significant Dorado discovery could be developed as the tie-in point for the Roc and Phoenix South resources with options for the gas to be used purely for domestic use, and for LNG purposes.”