Strike Oil to embark on Cooper Basin drilling programme

Strike Oil is to go ahead with its Cooper Basin drilling programme in Australia to evaluate unconventional potential oil and gas in two of the area’s wells.

The company will test Permian sections of the Battunga Trough within PEL 95 of the Marsden 1 well, which will be spudded in February. Following this test, Strike Oil will test Permian sections of the Milpera Trough within PEL 94 of the Davenport 1 well.

Strike Oil’s partner Beach Energy operates both wells and will provide data about Permian coal and shale formations to enable Strike to refine its resource model and develop the next stage of the evaluation programme.

Strike Oil managing director David Wrench said his company’s extensive acreage in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins of more than 16,000 net square kilometres will help Strike Oil become a major player in unconventional oil and gas exploration in Australia’s largest onshore oil and gas region.

"Our US experience has demonstrated that the most economic returns in shale developments are generated in wet gas fairways," said Wrench. "Accordingly, our Cooper Basin strategy is to target these zones. Our Marsden 1 and Davenport 1 evaluation wells will focus on identifying the wet gas fairway across the Southern Flank of the Cooper Basin."

The company anticipates that 700-800m of Permian sediment will be intersected in the Marsden 1 well. It will be drilled to a total depth of 2,640m, undergo extensive coring and logging, and will take 20-30 days to drill. Approximately 700m of Permian sediment will be intersected in the Davenport 1 well, which will be drilled to a total depth of 2,458m, extensively cored and logged, and will take 20-30 days to drill.

The Marsden 1 well is equally owned by Strike Oil and Beach Energy, while half of the Davenport 1 well is owned by Beach Energy and the remaining by Strike and Senex Energy with 35% and 15% shares, respectively. Strike Oil will use its cash reserves to provide a $2.5m share of the $5.5m total cost of the two wells.

Image: Strike Oil will test two wells in the Cooper Basin to identify oil and gas resources in the unconventional coal and shale formations within the Permian section. Photo: Strike Energy.