Empire Oil & Gas NL confirmed the Rough Range discovery, made in the 1950s, with its Rough Range 1B appraisal well.
West Australian Petroleum Pty. Ltd. discovered Rough Range in 1953. The field has not produced commercially. The discovery well flowed 1,600 b/d from an 8 m oil zone. Ten appraisal wells were dry or found only traces of oil.
Drilled on the Exmouth Peninsula, Rough Range 1B flowed at clean-up rates as high as 1,608 b/d, said Empire. The average flow rate was 837 b/d over the initial flow period of 5 hr last week. This included a flow rate of 1,200 b/d during the final 2 hr of the test as oil to surface temperature increased. The flowing wellhead pressure was 138 kPa through a 25.4 mm surface choke.
The oil is flowing into storage tanks on site and is being trucked to BP Australia Ltd.�s Kwinana refinery south of Perth.
A second well in the program, Central Rough Range 1, is planned to spud on June 1. This location has been mapped as the highest culmination of the Rough Range oil field. A separate structure, Rough Range South, will be drilled later in the program.
