Australian oil and gas company Carnarvon Energy said this week it had identified more than 100 prospects across its Bedout Permits, offshore W. Australia, the top 20 of which could hold over 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent in total.
"More than 100 prospects have been identified across Carnarvon’s acreage (WA-435-P, WA-436-P, WA-437-P and WA-438-P (collectively “Bedout Permits”)), covering a broad range of play styles. The top five prospects in each permit have been re-assessed following the successful Pavo discovery this year, with potential for high grading to drilling status. These top prospects contain both gas and liquids-focused targets," Carnarvon said.
"The mean prospective resources of the top 20 prospects add up to over 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (Pmean, gross). This, and the high average probability of geological success, underscores the potential for more discoveries in the highly prospective Bedout Sub-basin," Carnarvon said.
Carnarvon Managing Director and CEO, Adrian Cook, said: “I am very excited to share this update on the significant prospectivity of the Bedout Sub-basin, with the top 20 out of over 100 identified prospects totalling over 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Given the success rate in the basin of nearly 70%, Carnarvon is confident the drilling of these wells will add to our already extensive resource base, providing potential future tie-backs to Dorado or supporting new standalone project hubs.
Several prospects are now being high-graded as potential near-term drilling campaigns. Discussions are ongoing within the joint venture to determine where we focus our drilling, and we look forward to sharing those plans as they unfold.
All this exciting potential is underpinned by the Dorado and Pavo discovered resources of over 200 million barrels of oil and associated gas, with the liquids development the first step in unlocking the significant potential of the Bedout Sub-basin.”
High-grading Pavo, Ara, Starbuck prospect
Carnarvon has equity of between 20% and 30% across the Bedout Permits, with operator Santos Limited holding the remaining equity. The joint venture is now high-grading the Pavo, Ara, and Starbukc prospects for potential inclusion in near-term drilling campaigns.
• Pavo: Further drilling into the Pavo structure in WA-438-P will help both appraise the southern culmination adjacent to the highly successful Pavo discovery and confirm deliverability of the valuable, high-quality fluids. Proving up the low-risk (Pg 60%) Pavo South accumulation will dd 66 million barrels (Pmean, gross) to the already proven 43 million barrels (P50, gross) at Pavo North, which if successful would prove volumes roughly two thirds as big as Dorado. Further success at Pavo South would also enhance nearby prospectivity, such as at Torin, a 58-million-barrel (Pmean, gross) closure located around 15 km southeast of Pavo, Carnarvon said.
• Ara: An almost 600 bcf prospective gas field with 100 million barrels of associated condensate (Pmean, gross) has benefited from a review of the reprocessed Zeester 3D. Not only is Ara a ‘game-changer’ in terms of the size of the prospect itself, at 200 million barrels of oil equivalent, but exploration success in this northern area will de-risk numerous additional gas prospects in the vicinity such as Wendolene (335 bcf, Pmean, gross) and Yuma (434 bcf, Pmean, gross), which are similar in nature. Unlocking the gas play in this area has the potential to aggregate several tcf of gas and provide further confidence for the Stage 2 gas development at Dorado, Carnarvon said.
• Starbuck: The Starbuck (76 mmboe, Pmean, gross) and Flint (56 mmboe, Pmean, gross) prospects in WA-436-P are examples of already medium risk prospects (32% and 30% respectively) that will be high- graded through analysis of the Keraudren 3D and its areal extensions, acquired in 2019-2022. Success at either of these wells, on-trend with the recent Pavo-1 discovery, would unlock further prospectivity, such as Arthur (73 mmboe, Pmean, gross), Carnarvon said.
"The joint venture continues to high-grade the prospect portfolio in the Bedout Permits. Potential future drilling campaigns are subject to ongoing joint venture and government approvals," Carnarvon said.
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