Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, May 1 -- Two UK companies have farmed in to four permits owned by Empire Oil & Gas NL, Perth, in Western Australia's onshore Perth basin.
Allied Oil & Gas will spend $2.15 million (Aus.) on drilling and seismic surveys to earn a 25% interest in permits EP 426, 432, and 416. Some $750,000 of this will go toward drilling Moriary-1 in EP 426, an anticlinal structure similar to nearby Mount Horner oil field and having potential reserves of 11 million bbl.
Wharf Resources will earn a 25% interest in EP 389 by contributing $700,000 for a 3D seismic survey to define the Gin Gin West structure, an updip section of Gin Gin gas field, 80 km north of Perth. West Australian Petroleum in the 1960s discovered the field, which flowed gas during limited production tests in the 1970s. The field is estimated to hold 500 bcf of recoverable gas (OGJ, Oct. 13, 1997, p. 42).
Wharf has an option to earn a further 35% in the permit by drilling a $4 million exploration well on the permit.
