Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) holds an extensive package of prospective acreage of over 270,000 km2 in central Australia, which is predominately in the Pedirka Basin, along with 25,000 km2 in the Southern Georgina Basin.
Apart from conventional gas potential, the company has had independent estimates of over 10,000 trillion cubic feet in UCG "syngas" prospective recoverable resources.
Central Petroleum spuds Johnstone West-1 well
Perth-based Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) has reported that the Johnstone West-1 (EP115) wildcat oil well (JW-1), the second well in a planned 3-4 well programme for 2010, spudded this morning at 0130 CST.
Central holds a 90 per cent stake in the well.
The company also plans to initiate a stratigraphic drilling programme for coal in the Pedirka Basin shortly.
Based on estimates, the Johnstone West-1 well may host up to 500 MMbbl oil at “high-P01” estimate and up to 400 MMbbl oil at P10 estimate UOIIP in multiple target zones.
A fully risked “mean” of 32 MMbbl UOIIP has been calculated. The Horn Valley Siltstone and Stairway Sandstone formation shale unit are both thought to be present in the JW-1 structure and are also of interest to Central.
If present, the company said these shales will be cored and analysed for potential shale gas and or shale oil potential, although there are no immediate plans for horizontal drilling or fraccing these horizons in the current 2010 drilling campaign.
Central is Operator and holds a 90% interest in EP 115, through wholly-owned subsidiary Frontier Oil and Gas and Trident Energy Limited conditionally holds a 10% interest in the permit. JW-1 is located at Latitude 23 deg 39 minutes and 21.86 seconds South, Longitude 129 degrees 56 minutes and 39.124 seconds East.
In addition, preliminary advice has been received by the company that there is little chance of significant coal seam gas (CSG) resources in or about the 5 well CSG programme completed in May 2010.
The company said the results of CSG wells drilled to date in the Pedirka Basin have been disappointing. A more detailed report is under preparation by Netherlands Sewell and Associates but their preliminary advice is "not encouraging".
The companys said, "although the deeper coals encountered in Blamore 1 drilled in 2008 showed evidence of gas saturation and permeability, they are generally considered too deep for commercial exploitation but this can not be ruled out as the coals are very thick and modern horizontal drilling techniques may have potential in future programmes."
The company believes that in the Pedirka Basin, there may be more potential in underground coal gasification (UCG), mining coal and gasifying on the surface with conversion to liquids (CTL) and perhaps very large scale mining and beneficiation prior to export compared to CSG development.
A four well stratigraphic programme to potentially expand the known distribution and thickness of coal is planned to commence in 4-8 weeks in Central’s wholly owned subsidiary Company, Merlin Coal Pty Ltd’s Mining Act permits in the Pedirka Basin.
Previous independent reports have estimated the total tonnage of coal above 1,000m as being 635 billion tonnes (“low” estimate) to 865 billion tonnes (“high” estimate) within Central’s wholly owned subsidiary, Merlin Coal Pty Ltd’s mineral leases and 1,110 billion tonnes (“low” estimate) to 1,385 billion tonnes (“high” estimate) above 1,000m in the same category in Central’s petroleum leases in the same area in the JORC “Exploration Target” category.
