Permitting, wells boost Timor potential

The Timor Sea is fast becoming an important oil and gas province. BHP Petroleum has gone it alone in its successful bid to secure highly fancied Timor Sea exploration Permit WA-260-P in the northern Timor Sea. The wedge shaped area lies between the Timor Gap Zone of Cooperation oil finds at Elang/Kakatua in Permit ZOCA 91-12 on the east and the Laminaria/ Corallina oil finds on Permit AC/P8 on the west. In fact, the Laminaria structure straddles the boundary with as much as 40% in the new

Feb. 5, 1996

3 min read

The Timor Sea is fast becoming an important oil and gas province.

BHP Petroleum has gone it alone in its successful bid to secure highly fancied Timor Sea exploration Permit WA-260-P in the northern Timor Sea. The wedge shaped area lies between the Timor Gap Zone of Cooperation oil finds at Elang/Kakatua in Permit ZOCA 91-12 on the east and the Laminaria/ Corallina oil finds on Permit AC/P8 on the west. In fact, the Laminaria structure straddles the boundary with as much as 40% in the new permit.

BHP has guaranteed to spend $114 million on exploration in the area the next 3 years. This bid, which includes 11 wells plus seismic acquisition and reprocessing, is of a size not seen in Australia since the early 1980s and was clearly designed to secure the permit against the seven rival bids.

New legislation recently passed by the federal government has closed loopholes that previously enabled permit holders to surrender their leases without having completed their dry hole commitments for the first time in 3 years of a 6 year permit term. This means BHP will be kept close to its 11 well program.

A further indication of the companys assessment of the potential is shown by the fact that it did not bid with its traditional partners, Woodside and Shell from the Laminaria/Corallina consortium in AC/P8 or Santos, Inpex, and Petroz fromthe Elang/Kakatua group in ZOCA 91-12. The new interest completes BHPs move into all three permits in this prospective corner of the Timor Sea.

Other areas

Meanwhile, Petroz released more estimates of recoverable undeveloped re- serves in Undan/Bayu field south of Elang/Kakatua.

Petroz said there is a 90% chance of 110 million bbl of condensate, 90 million bbl of LPG, and 1.5 tcf of gas. It gives a 10% chance of 270 million bbl of condensate, 225 million bbl of LPG, and 3.7 tcf of gas.

The figures are based on three successful wells in the western section (Undan) and one in the eastern section (Bayu) of the structure, which straddles the ZOCA 91-12/91-13 boundary.

Petroz believes two thirds of the reserves lie in Undan. Gross hydrocarbon column of the most recent appraisal well, Undan 3, was 136 m thick, greater than prognosis.

The Bayu 2 and Undan 4 wells are next in line for drilling.

Action in the AC/P8 permit, where Woodside is operator, is equally encouraging. An initial strong flow of 8,000 b/d of oil has been recorded in the Corallina 1 wildcat through a 4064 in. choke over a 63 m interval. Tests continued.

At Laminaria, 9 km from Corallina and which may yet prove to be connected to Corallina, Woodside has upgraded its official technically recoverable oil reserves estimate in the central and southern sectors of the field to 125 million bbl from May 1995s 50-80 million bbl.

The new figure follows drilling of the Laminaria 3 sidetrack 1 appraisal. Unofficial estimates put recoverable reserves closer to 250 million bbl.