ENI, Tap Oil relinquish Prometheus-Rubicon lease

Jan. 7, 2020
The joint venture of ENI Australia and Tap Oil Ltd. has agreed to surrender retention lease WA-34-R in the Bonaparte basin of Western Australia that contains the Prometheus and Rubicon gas discoveries.

The joint venture of ENI Australia and Tap Oil Ltd. has agreed to surrender retention lease WA-34-R in the Bonaparte basin of Western Australia that contains the Prometheus and Rubicon gas discoveries. 

Tap, the junior partner in the venture, said that the retention lease had been extended for a second 5-year term in 2015 and the JV had used this time to evaluate a range of commercialization opportunities under a variety of economic assumptions. They concluded that the returns on potential developments were not sufficiently attractive when put against the costs and risks.

The partners came to a mutual decision to surrender the lease, a move that was finalized on Dec. 24, 2019. 

Prometheus and Rubicon, 3 km apart, were discovered in June and December 2000, respectively, by then operator Kerr McGee. Both fields have gas columns in the Upper Permian-age Tern formation – Prometheus 72 m gross thickness and Rubicon 30 m gross thickness. They lie in moderate water depths some 400 km west of Darwin and are in close proximity to the existing Ichthys-Darwin gas trunkline.