Cooper Energy Ltd., Adelaide, was awarded 100% interest in exploration permit Vic P/80 in the offshore Gippsland basin of eastern Victoria.
The permit is adjacent to oil and gas fields including Cooper’s Sole gas field to the east, Basker-Manta-Gummy oil and gas fields to the south, and Esso-BHP’s Kipper gas field to the west.
The award is for a 6-year term, the first 3 years of which include licensing 3D seismic and the conduct of geological and geophysical studies.
The permit contains the Leatherjacket oil discovery—a 25-m oil column in the Upper Latrobe group reservoirs of Tertiary age discovered by Esso-BHP in 1986.
Cooper has identified prospectivity in the Golden Beach and Emperor subgroups. Nearby prospect analogues include the Kipper, Manta, and Judith fields, Cooper said.
The key prospect is Wobbegong, which lies 5 km north of Manta and 8 km southeast of Kipper. The Golden Beach sub-group is the target reservoir.
Water depth is 80 m and the prognosed top of Golden Beach is 2,400 m subsea.
Cooper has estimated unrisked prospective resource potential at Wobbegong of 192 bcf of gas on a P50 basis.
The new permit adds to Cooper’s growing Manta gas hub potential and continues efforts to identify and bring new gas on stream to supply eastern Australia, said David Maxwell, managing director.
