Cooper basin oil project gains momentum

Aug. 28, 2007
Santos Ltd. is adding more acreage to its Cooper basin oil project (COP) in eastern Australia as it builds production in several areas.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 28 -- Santos Ltd. is adding more acreage to its Cooper basin oil project (COP) in eastern Australia as it builds production in several areas.

Oil production was just under 10,000 b/d net to Santos as of mid-2007 and with 150 wells projected to be drilled in the calendar year is to increase to about 14,000 b/d at yearend, the company said.

The project's yearend 2006 land position was 7.4 million acres, and at midyear Santos said it had amassed a 25% increase in net acreage since 2005 (OGJ, June 26, 2006, p. 51).

Then on Aug. 27 the company signed a letter of intent with Avery Resources Inc., Calgary, to engage the 631,000-acre Barta Block and the 222,000-acre Wompi Block in Queensland, which are adjacent to Santos' COP lands on the basin's oily rim. Avery holds the blocks with partners Bow Energy Ltd. and Victoria Petroleum Ltd.

Avery calls COP "the largest and most comprehensive Australian exploration and development program ever undertaken." The $1.3 billion capital expenditure incorporates large 3D seismic surveys and the drilling of as many as 1,000 wells.

The first wells on Avery's acreage are to be drilled in early 2008, subject to a final agreement. The $18.5 million program calls for 200 sq km of 3D seismic and four wells on Wompi and 100 sq km of 3D seismic and three wells on Barta.

Santos launched COP in the Endeavour/Mulberry area in Queensland, where it has reported encouraging results from waterflooding in Mulberry 5 field. Chemical or carbon dioxide flooding may be implemented there later.

The focus of COP is lately shifting to the Tirrawarra Block in South Australia and the Naccowlah block in southwestern Queensland.