Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has extended its successful run of oil discoveries in the western flank Cooper-Eromanga basin play in South Australia with its Stunsail-1 wildcat.
The well, which was drilled in permit PEL 91, is the most northerly discovery so far. The well, said Beach, exceeded its expectations by encountering a thicker oil column and multiple hydrocarbon-bearing zones.
Beach said the well found oil in two zones within the McKinlay-Namur section of Jurassic (Eromanga basin) age. The first was a 10-m section intersected at a depth of 1,367 m subsurface with 6 m of this within the highly productive Namur Sandstone. Another 4-m column was encountered lower down in the well (at 1,403 m) within the mid-Namur section.
Additional oil shows were found in the underlying Birkhead formation (also Eromanga sediments). Beach tested two intervals here around 1,667 m and higher at 1,610 m depth.
The first, a DST over 15 m in the lower section, recovered 46 bbl of oil and 3 bbl of filtrate to surface during the 4-hr test—equivalent to a flow of 250 b/d.
The second DST, over a 11.5-m section in the higher zone was still in progress at the time of the announcement.
Beach puts its continuing success in this Western Cooper flank play (named because the Eromanga reservoirs overlie the western rim of the Permian-age Cooper basin, which acts as a conduit for hydrocarbons originating in deeper sediments) to a detailed campaign of 3D seismic acquisition.
The company plans to continue the program during the next few months. The next well is Hardwicke-1, to be drilled about 8 km northeast of the Stunsail discovery.
Beach holds a 40% interest in PEL 91 and is operator. Drillsearch Energy has 60%.
