Pilot Energy Ltd., Sydney, signed a binding farm-out agreement with recently formed private company Advanced Energy Transition Pty Ltd (AET), Perth, for AET to earn a 50% interest in the Leschenault gas prospect in the onshore South Perth basin.
AET will earn the interest in a future retention lease or future production license over the prospect by funding an exploration well in permit EP 416 or EP 480. Pilot currently has 100% interest in both permits.
Leschenault is a north-south oriented prospect that lies within the southern sector of EP 480 and extends south right though contiguous permit EP416. The permits lie between the towns of Mandura and Bunbury and relatively close to the Kwinana industrial hub. The Dampier-Bunbury gas trunkline runs through the area.
The two permits have only been sparsely explored with two wells drilled in the 1960s (Preston-1 and Lake Preston-1). More recently a well (GSWA Harvey-1) was drilled in 2012 along with three follow-up wells in 2015 (Harvey-2, 3, and 4) as part of the South West Hub carbon capture storage project.
The wells confirmed the presence of a Permian-age petroleum system with the primary reservoir target being the Sue Group sandstones and the overlying Triassic-age Leseur sandstones.
Pilot says gas has been generated from mature Permian coal measures located within the permits.
The prospect is a large faulted anticline mapped on 2D seismic with up to 240 sq km of mapped areal closure at the top of the Sue Group sandstone level. The primary target lies at a depth of 2,225-2,500 m.
Leschenault lies up-dip of the potential Permian kitchen on the flank of a regional gravity high. The prospect has been independently assessed to potentially hold gross prospective resource of 725 bcf of gas (P50) and up to 1.595 tcf at the high-end estimate.
The farm-out deal stipulates that AET will secure funding by April 2022, a drilling permit by March 2022, and the spudding of Lenschenault-1 wildcat by February 2023.
The exploration well will also assess the suitability of reservoirs for carbon sequestration.