Santos Ltd., Adelaide, and its joint venture partner Drillsearch Energy Ltd., Sydney, have made a natural gas discovery in the Cooper basin of South Australia with the eighth and final well of the current (2014-15) program in permit PEL513 (OGJ Online, May 4, 2015).
Moonanga South-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,177 m south of the JV’s producing Moonanga field and east of Raven field in an adjacent permit.
Drillsearch reported gas shows across the Permian-age Patachawarra formation between 2,597 m and 3,115 m. Elevated gas readings were recorded across both sandstone reservoirs and coal seams.
Preliminary interpretation of wireline logs suggests 4.3 m of net pay across two zones in the Patachawarra within a gross interval of 518 m.
The JV identified stacked reservoirs in the conventional play as well as several zones with unconventional gas potential.
Moonanga South-1 has been cased and suspended as a future gas producer.
Drillsearch has now drilled more than 40 wells during the past 12 months in this and other joint ventures and achieved better than 70% success rate.
The company is now finalizing its 2015-16 program.
Drillsearch holds 40% of the Moonanga South discovery, while operator Santos has 60%.
