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Phoenix In 3D Expands Activity
The Phoenix 3D seismic survey covers the underexplored area between the Carnarvon Basin in the southwest and Browse Basin in the northeast. It is the first 3D seismic data acquired within the Bedout Basin, and has highgraded several key prospects.
The survey shows a lot of promise as it has not only confirmed the robustness of the Phoenix South and Roc prospectswhich are considered likely for drilling, but has also highlighted two new leads at Bewdy and Bottler. These prospects and leads have a combined total potential of trillions of cubic feet of recoverable gas.
The Phoenix 3D and 2D seismic survey was acquired by Fugro Multi Client Services between December 2010 and February 2011. The survey consists of 1100 km2 of 3D seismic data plus a series of key 2D seismic well tie lines
which are 475 km in total, tying five wells.
"The Phoenix 3D seismic survey was acquired as a long offset survey, utilising streamer lengths of 7 km. The 2D tie lines were acquired with exactly the same equipment, removing ambiguity in the well tie lines that is often associated with using different equipment and/or vintages of data", said Shane Westlake, Technical Project Manager at Finder Exploration.
Finder Exploration and its Joint Venturer (JV) Carnarvon Petroleum (50%) will farm out the opportunity when the data is fully interpreted.
Craig Gumley, Commercial and Operations JV Manager at Finder Exploration, sees the Phoenix gas project as Finder's (and Carnarvon Petroleum's) lowest-risk near-term opportunity. "It is low risk from two perspectives – geological
and commercial", he said.
The Phoenix farm-in opportunity has a low geological risk as BP already proved the presence of gas in its 1980s drilling campaign.
"The Phoenix-1 gas discovery made by BP in 1980 proves the presence of hydrocarbons, where BP calculated 110 m of net gas pay from a 767 m column, but which could not be tested due to safety concerns arising from the influx of gas into the wellbore from the lowest sand intersected. Two years later BP drilled Pheonix-2 which had a lower quality reservoir", Gumley said. "Both the Phoenix-1 and Phoenix-2 wells are within the Phoenix 3D seismic survey.
"In the early 1980s there was no market for gas and BP dropped the acreage. However, there is a huge appetite for gas now."
There is also a low commercial risk, as the discovery is in a low cost environment with ready access to growing markets. "The Phoenix gas discovery is in water depths of 140 m and is only 150 km north of Port Hedland. The LNG feedstock and domestic gas markets are just to the south, as is infrastructure, commercially de-risking the project", Gumley said.
The Phoenix farm-in opportunity will be jointly brought to the farm-out market early 2012.
