Theia Energy has entered a land use agreement with the Karajarri Traditional Lands Association enabling the company to move forward with its unconventional oil and gas exploration plans in the onshore Canning basin permit EP 493.
Theia has 100% interest in the permit that covers one million acres and contains the prospective Mid-Ordovician-age Goldwyer shale play in the Great Sandy Desert region.
The company was formed in 2018 as a spin-off from Finder Energy following Finder’s Theia-1 well in the permit in 2015. The well encountered a 70 m oil column in the shale target.
Early assessment of the results validates the company’s geological model and derisk the play, Theia said.
Appraial work is expected to begin with a second vertical well, Theia-2, to be drilled from the same location as Theia-1 and fracture stimulated.
Theia has opened a data room for prospective farminees to share costs, but the well will be drilled even if no JV partner is found before the expected spud date of 2022, the company said.
Theia puts an estimated prospective resource of the Goldwyer Shale in the region at more than 3 billion boe.
