Nexus plans infill drilling in Longtom gas field

Nexus Energy Ltd., Melbourne, is pushing ahead with plans for drilling the Longtom-5 infill well in Victorian offshore Gippsland production licence Vic/L29 as part of the company’s plans to bolster reserves for its wholly owned Longtom natural gas field in Bass Strait.

The well is slated for first-half 2013. Nexus hopes to contract AGR Group as the program’s drilling manager.

Nexus changed tack at Longtom earlier this year after confirming that the 2P reserves for the field had been downgraded to 137 petajoules. This downgrade followed a review of data which revealed that the field geology was more complex than at first thought (OGJ Online, Oct. 27, 2009).

Even so, Nexus remains confident it will be able to meet its commitments in a gas sales contract with Santos for the supply of as much as 350 petajoules over 10 years.