Carnarvon to expand oil search
UPDATE 2pm: Carnarvon Petroleum and its partners will expand the search for oil and gas at their exploration permits off the Pilbara coast following the discovery of oil at the Phoenix South-1 well in August last year.
Carnarvon announced today it would spend $10 million acquiring 3D and 2D seismic data covering the majority of its 22,000sqkm holding across its four exploration permits north of Port Hedland to better identify potential drilling targets.
Chief executive and managing director Adrian Cook said the Phoenix South-1 oil discovery last year was important… but on a larger scale it provided significant encouragement regarding the hydrocarbon prospectivity within the area.
"To refine our understanding of this prospect, we need to further build our regional understanding and these data sets will be integral to that," he said.
"This initiative will become particularly important, and valuable, if the outcome of the Roc-1 well is as we hope later this year."
Carnarvon and its joint venture partners are turning their attention to drilling Roc-1, in permit WA-437-P, which Mr Cook has said was always regarded as a better prospect than Phoenix South.
The company said last month it expected drilling at Roc would begin in the middle of this year.
At the same time, the company told shareholders the joint venture needed more time to thoroughly assess all the data associated with Phoenix South-1 before providing oil in place estimates, recoverability factors and recoverable volumes.
Carnarvon is in joint ventures over its four permits with Apache Energy (operator), JX Nippon and Finder Exploration.
Shares in Carnarvon were up one cent, or 7.41 per cent, to 14.7 cents at the close.
