Central Petroleum Ltd., Brisbane, has upgraded proven and probable oil and gas reserves for its three producing oil and gas fields in the Amadeus basin of the Northern Territory by 16%.
After accounting for production during the 2019-2020 financial year ended June 30, the company said there is an increase of 22.5 petajoules equivalent (PJE) in aggregate 2P oil and gas reserves for a total of 161.2 PJE at end-June in Mereenie, Palm Valley, and Dingo fields.
Resources have been independently certified by Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc.
The reserve upgrade has been driven by strong field performance and the exceptional performance of the Palm Valley 13 (PV-13) horizontal well since it was commissioned in May last year, Central said.
Additionally, there are 105 petajoules of 2C contingent gas resources which could be unlocked by a proposed Stairway reservoir appraisal program at Mereenie along with additional infield development wells at Palm Valley. These resources could be brought on stream and connected to existing production facilities at relatively low cost, the company said.
The company is contemplating a new approach to appraise production from the Stairway Sandstone at Mereenie. The idea is to use lateral drilling from existing wells at locations that had prior gas observed gas shows while drilling through the reservoir.
At Palm Valley, the PV-13 well in the Pacoota Sandstone reservoir has recovered more than 2.6 petajoules of gas over a 13-month period.
With this performance in mind Central will drill future laterals from existing wells to access poorly connected portions of the reservoir.
Both the Stairway appraisal work and a lateral from the PV Deep exploration well are slated for drilling in 2021 and are expected to be brought on stream in 2022.
