Permit Summary

PEL 106 is located in the South Australian Cooper Basin and covers the southern-central portion of the Patchawarra Trough. PEL 106 was initially granted on 9 April 2003 for one 5 year term. After this period expired, the permit was renewed for a further term and half of the initial permit area was relinquished. The renewed area of PEL 106 is 504km². Due to prolonged periods of flooding in the Cooper Basin in 2010, Drillsearch received an extension and suspension for PEL 106. The new expiry date of the permit is 8 October 2014.

The majority of these wells are currently shut-in and are awaiting suitable commercial arrangements to connect them to the market. Drillsearch’s Wet Gas Pilot Project was in continuous production since early January 2012 with sales to the South Australian Cooper Basin Joint Venture (SACBJV) (Santos 66.60%, Delhi Petroleum 20.21% and Origin Energy 13.19%). The field was shut-in on 1 October 2012 due to gas gathering pipeline expansion works by the SACBJV associated with the development of the Greater Tindilpie Gas Field Complex. Work on a Gas Commercialisation strategy is described further on the Gas Commercialisation page.

PEL 106A - Wells

PEL 106B - Wells

In order to generate drilling targets and reduce geological risk, Drillsearch has participated in the acquisition of the Spinel 3D survey which consists of 500km of 2D seismic data and 577km² of 3D seismic data. Reprocessing of the Spinel 3D seismic survey is currently underway.

Recent exploration has primarily been based on the conventional hydrocarbon system concepts within the Copper-Eromanga Basin. The results indicate that the hydrocarbons are sourced from the Permian age coals and shales that act as regional and local seals. The regional seals restrain hydrocarbon migration within the Permian section. In effect, the hydrocarbons are forced to move laterally up dip and towards the basin margins. Local sealing by coals and shales is evident by a number of hydrocarbon accumulations, which are mostly gas, within the bounds of PEL 106. In particular, the Raven Gas field (operated by Santos) has produced approximately 40BCF of gas with an estimated ultimate recovery of 70BCF of gas.

Recent Activity

Unconventional

In PEL 106 and within the Patchawarra section and confined within shales, coals up to 9m thick have been intersected. As such and as part of the four well drilling campaign which was completed in early 2012, the PEL 106B Joint Venture conducted a coring program of the Admella-1, Coolawang-1 and Haslam-1 wells targeting potential unconventional reservoir sequences in the deep coal seams of the Patchawarra Formation. The Joint Venture cut up to 30 metres of full core in these wells in order to target potential unconventional reservoir sequences. These cores will be desorption tested and analysed for overall gas contents to assess the overall prospectivity of these intervals as potential unconventional reservoir targets. 

Conventional

Exploration and development operations in the Western Wet Gas Project area that incorporates PEL 106A and PEL 106B has been focused on the following key activities;

• Establishing a significant increase in gross 2P Reserves for the Brownlow Wet Gas Field based on sales gas production results to date;
• Expanding the production capacity of the project with the development of the Canunda Wet Gas Field and installation of gas gathering pipelines to the Middleton Gas Plant;
• Securing additional firm, long-term gas sale arrangements for the project with the Cooper Basin Joint Venture;
• Commencing a four-well wet gas exploration program in PEL 106B with the objective of proving up significant additional Wet Gas Reserves to further underpin the project and additional wet gas sales; and
• Selection and preparation of PEL 106A Wet Gas exploration drilling locations.