Strike Energy Ltd. reported strong gas flows to surface from the Wagina sandstone reservoir in its South Erregulla-1 (SE-1) wildcat in permit EP503 in the North Perth basin of Western Australia.
The Wagina was encountered at 4,072 m in the intermediate section of the well and appears to be made up of thick, clean sand units with elevated mud gas readings recorded.
A drilling break at 4,174 m coincided with a gas break that resulted in prolonged gas flaring at the surface.
Live logging while drilling data suggests it is a conventional gas-charged reservoir similar to nearby Beharra Springs field, the company said.
So far, SE-1 has correlated closely with the stratigraphy of West Erregulla gas field in adjoining Strike-operated EP469. SE-1 lies less than 5 km south of the nearest successful West Erregulla well.
Strike is gathering pressure data and samples via a wireline program before it finalizes its petrophysical analysis to assess the significance of the results so far.
The well will continue drilling down to the primary target of the Kingia sandstone.
Strike is operator of EP503 with 100% interest.
SE-1 is expected to encounter the Kingia target at a shallower depth than at West Erregulla-2 and the company plans to collect whole core and an advanced series of wireline logs across the Kingia sandstones.
If gas is encountered, the reservoir will be flow tested and potentially completed as a future producer.
The primary objective of SE-1 and any subsequent appraisal wells is to delineate around 350 petajoules of high confidence resource to secure the gas requirements for Strike’s proposed 1.4 million tonnes/year Project Haber urea manufacturing facility.