Armour Energy de-risks Australia shale gas potential

Armour Energy has unveiled technical information from two wells it drilled last year in Queensland, Australia, that further de-risks the gas potential of Lawn and Riversleigh Shales.

The wells, Egilabria 2 and Egilabria 4, were drilled in the eastern part of the ATP1087 tenement. Armour said the conclusions of detailed source rock analysis has been consistent with its view that the Lawn and Riversleigh Formations have amongst the highest TOC content of any shale play in Australia.

Detailed source rock analysis recorded total organic carbon (TOC) of up to 11% in sweet spots at the two shales, well above the 5% TOCs seen in shales such as the Marcellus in the US.

TCO is one of the key measures for a shale formation to be economically viable, as it provides a measure for the capacity of the rock to generate hydrocarbons.

Gas analysis of samples taken from the Egilabria 2 lateral has returned high methane content with helium and low carbon dioxide content.

Armour said that shale cuttings taken from both the wells have confirmed gas desorption.

The company is currently examining both the additional conventional and Riversleigh plays based on the recent lab analyses, and further seismic remapping.

A 2012 report by MBA Petroleum Consultants has identified a mean prospective resource of 22.5 trillion cubic feet for the Lawn shale formation.