Permit Summary

PEL 91 is located in the South Australian Cooper Basin and covers part of the south-western flank of the Patchawarra Trough. The permit was initially granted on 8 January 2002 for a five year term. In 2008 the permit was renewed for the second term and a third of the initial permit area was relinquished. The renewed area of PEL 91 is 1,972km². Due to prolonged periods of flooding in Cooper Basin in 2010 and 2011 Drillsearch received an extension and suspension of permit conditions for PEL 91. The new expiry date is 4 June 2014.

In 2003 Beach Energy farmed into and acquired a 40% interest in PEL 91 and following completion of the farmin work obligations PEL 91 is now held on a 60/40 basis. Beach is the technical operator of PEL 91.

PEL 91 is located in an ‘oil fairway’ on the Western Flank of the Patchawarra Trough. A number of recent oil discoveries were found in the blocks adjacent to PEL 91. To the south, in PEL 92, discoveries include Sellicks, Christies, Parsons and Callawonga oil fields and most recently Perlubie, Butlers and Silver Sands oil fields. Additionally, to the north in PEL 104, new oil fields such as Growler, Wirraway, Tigershark, Tigercat and Warhawk and further north in PEL 111, Charo and Snatcher oil fields.

Recent Activity

Recent exploration and development operations in the Western Flank Oil Fairway have been focused on the following key activities:

• Ongoing successful appraisal and development of the Bauer Oil Field Complex, which delivered material increases in both production and Reserves;
• Significant increases in oil export trucking operations from the Bauer Oil Field with the completion and commissioning of the Lycium-to-Moomba Oil Export Pipeline;
• Construction of the Bauer-to-Lycium Oil Export Pipeline supporting further development and expansion of production from the Bauer Oil Field Complex and other PEL 91 oil discoveries;
• Continuing exploration drilling success with the new oil field discovery at Pennington-1 which is expected to deliver additional material oil Reserve increases.