Beach’s Balgowan-1 extends oil fairway in Cooper basin

Aug. 14, 2014
Following recent discoveries in PEL 91, Beach Energy Ltd. reported an oil discovery in the Namur sandstone and McKinlay member at its Blagowan-1 exploration. The company confirmed an extension of the oil fairway to the northeast of its Stunsail-1 wildcat and Pennington-2 appraisal well on the western flank of the Cooper basin in South Australia.

Following recent discoveries in PEL 91, Beach Energy Ltd. reported an oil discovery in the Namur sandstone and McKinlay member at its Blagowan-1 exploration. The company confirmed an extension of the oil fairway to the northeast of its Stunsail-1 wildcat and Pennington-2 appraisal well on the western flank of the Cooper basin in South Australia (OGJ Online, June 3, 2014).

The Balgowan well encountered a gross oil interval of 9 m—with 3.5 m (gross and net) in the Namur sandstone and 5 m (2 m net) in the overlying McKinlay member. To date, the company has been successful at Stunsail, Congony, Kalladeina, and Sceale.

The Ensign 930 rig will be moved to the Burners-1 exploration well midway between the Balgowan and Stunsail discoveries once casing operations are completed.

While Beach maintains its focus on the western flank of Cooper basin, the company is also developing exploration efforts for the eastern flank. “Through our farmins with Bengal Enerty in ATP 732 and more recently with Drillsearch in ATP 924, we plan to utilize our expertise to interpret 3D seismic information to identify drilling prospect in the first half of 2015,” said Reg Nelson, Beach managing director.