Bengal Energy Ltd.’s Australian arm has started remedial field operations at its 100%-owned Wareena and Caracal fields in the Cooper-Eromanga basins of southwest Queensland with the aim of becoming an operator and producer.
At Wareena in production license PL1110 to the east of the company’s exploration permit ATP934, Bengal plans to restart two wells in the Permian-age Cooper basin field where it hopes to reduce or eliminate water production to promote gas production.
Cumulative historical production of gas from the two wells was more than 6 bcf, Bengal said.
The company plans to reactivate the associated pipelines to allow sales and export of gas via the Coonaberry compression station into the Santos gas infrastructure that links with Moomba processing plant in South Australia.
The Wareena wells will be ready for extended production testing in April. If successful, the company expects to begin gas production to market via the recommissioned pipeline near this year’s third quarter.
At Caracal, in the Tookoonooka permit ATP732 south of Wareena, Bengal plans to reinstate and stimulate discovery well Caracal-1, where it found light oil in Wyandra sandstones of Cretaceous age (Eromanga basin) in 2012.
The goal is to produce commercial volumes of oil via a refurbished Lufkin pumping unit. The oil would be gravity separated in a tank onsite and offloaded to road tankers for delivery to the small oil refinery in Eromanga, Queensland.
Once production is established, Bengal plans further exploration of surrounding prospects to augment oil flow.
