Bennett Resources submits plans to drill onshore Canning basin
Bennett Resources has submitted plans to drill and fracture six wells in the onshore Canning basin of Western Australia.
Plans have been submitted to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority and refer to proposed drilling for unconventional gas resources in permit EP 371 near Fitzroy Crossing.
The Western Australian government lifted its moratorium on fracturing in November 2018 after a wide-ranging scientific inquiry which found that it posed a low risk to human health and the environment.
If approved, Bennett’s proposal will be the first fracturing program since the moratorium was lifted.
Black Mountain’s chief operating officer, Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, has linked the potential for unconventional gas resources in the Canning with a way to address energy shortages in eastern Australia.
She said the basin’s unconventional gas resources have been constrained by a number of factors to date, including access to markets through infrastructure.
There is now a real opportunity to produce gas for the Australian domestic market, she said, referring to recent revival of discussion about the possibility of a west-east gas pipeline across the country.
Such a pipeline proposal was first mooted in the mid-1970s, but the cost of construction has not been considered economically feasible. Recently, the idea was resurected by the Australian government, but economics are still a hurdle.
Zumwalt-Forbes said that while the eastern states were the preferred market, the Canning project’s success did not depend on a trans-Australian pipeline.
There’s an opportunity for gas from the Canning to be piped south to link with existing infrastructure associated with offshore gas production off the Pilbara and the domestic gas trunkline from Dampier to Bunbury as well as the LNG facilities targeting an export market, she said.
Bennett Resources will begin a seismic acquisition program in EP 371 during the next 12 months. Commencement of drilling is proposed by 2022.