Strong Flow of Gas Condensate at Proteus Well (Australia)

ConocoPhillips-operated Proteus‐1ST2 exploration well in Australia has been production tested following the confirmation of a gas discovery on 30 August, 2013.

The successful flow test of the Proteus‐1ST2 well, located within the Browse Basin , has produced a strong flow of condensate bearing gas with a maximum flow rate of 7.3 MMscf/d measured through a 16/64” choke with a flowing well head pressure of 4457psi, Karoon Gas Australia, a company which owns a share in the project said today.

The test was conducted in 4‐1/8” diameter wellbore over the entire open hole section between 4920‐5250mRT in Jurassic aged rocks of the Plover and Montara Formations.

In order to maintain hole stability, flow rates were constrained and initial analysis indicates that significantly higher flow rates would be achieved with appropriate infrastructure in place.

A Condensate‐Gas Ratio in the range of approximately 19‐22 bbl/MMscf was measured at surface.

The measured condensate ratio is the highest yet recorded from the Poseidon project exploration campaign and 10‐20% higher than the ratio measured in the Boreas‐1 well. The gas also contained approximately 12% CO2, near the lower concentration levels found to date in the Greater Poseidon Area.

At 06:00 hrs WST today the test string was being pulled from the hole. Since the last progress update the wireline logging program was completed prior to installing well testing equipment. Wireline logging was successful in acquiring a high quality data set for ongoing field studies.

Impact of the discovery Based on an analysis of the well test data, Karoon “is highly confident that future production wells drilled adjacent to the Proteus‐1ST2 location could flow at commercial rates in excess of 100 MMscf/d.”

Along with Kronos‐1 (located 17 kilometres west of Proteus‐1) and Boreas‐1 (located 10 kilometres north west of Proteus‐1), Proteus‐1ST2 is the third well in the Greater Poseidon Area that has been production tested, proving that development wells will produce gas at commercial rates.

The Proteus‐1ST2 discovery of younger well‐developed good quality gas bearing sands in the Jurassic age formations open up the potential for further prospectivity adding to the older Plover Formation volumes discovered to date.

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Press Release, September 17, 2013