Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, July 30 -- Santos Ltd.'s offshore Otway basin joint venture, which includes Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd. (AWE) of Sydney and Japan's Mitsui E&P Australia Ltd., has discovered 22 m of natural gas pay in primary reservoir target sands with its Netherby-1 wildcat drilled on permit Vic/P44 off Victoria.
The well, drilled using the Ocean Patriot semisubmersible rig to a total depth of 1,870 m, will now be assessed with wireline logs and a pressure-testing program.
Netherby is the second of three planned appraisal and development wells in this sector of the permit in which it is hoped to add reserves to the planned Henry field gas development as an adjunct to the existing Casino field production facilities.
Netherby-1 lies 4 km north of Henry. If the coming tests are successful, Santos plans an immediate sidetrack well to fully determine the reserves before moving the rig to the planned Henry-2 appraisal.
Operator Santos, Adelaide, has 50% interest in the project with AWE and Mitsui each having 25%.
In related news, Santos has appointed acting Chief Executive Officer David Knox as permanent chief executive of the company (OGJ Online, July 29, 2008).
