Senex Energy makes oil discovery in South Australian Cooper Basin

Oil and gas exploration and production company Senex Energy has discovered oil in the Birkhead formation’s Marauder-1 well on the western flank of the South Australian Cooper Basin.

The exploration well, located in PEL 104, is about 2km north of the company’s producing Growler and Spitfire oil fields and produced 655 barrels of oil per day (bopd) on a drill stem test.

According to the company, the well encountered good oil shows within Birkhead sands, with evaluation of logs demonstrating net pay of up to 8.6m within a 17.5m gross oil column.

Designed to evaluate the production potential of the Birkhead formation, Marauder-1 was identified from the Mollichuta 3D seismic survey.

Senex Energy managing director and CEO Ian Davies said: “We are delighted to commence the FY18 financial year with this discovery.

“We look forward to bringing Marauder-1 online at the earliest opportunity, while assessing further drilling prospects in this area.”

A drill stem test conducted over the Birkhead formation recovered 83.7 barrels of around 48° API oil, with no sign of formation water throughout the test.

The company noted that the well is set to be cased and suspended.

It is also planning to place the well on production in the coming months through a flowline to link it to existing infrastructure on western flank fields.

PEL 104 is operated by Senex Energy with a 60% working interest, while the remaining interest is held by Beach Energy.

Senex has onshore oil and gas acreage in the Cooper and Surat Basins, including 100% ownership of the Western Surat gas project in Queensland.