Monday 4 April 2022

Carnarvon Energy Limited  is pleased to announce that the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up drilling rig has mobilised to the Apus-1 well location, and expects to commence drilling operations within a week.

The rig recently completed drilling the successful Pavo-1 well in proximity to the Apus-1 well location, which resulted in a material oil discovery.

Carnarvon estimates a gross mean recoverable volume of 235 million barrels of liquids and 408 billion cubic feet of gas in the Caley and Milne sands within the Apus structure, with Carnarvon holding an average interest of ~25% in the target resource.

Carnarvon Managing Director and CEO, Mr Adrian Cook, said:

“The recent Pavo-1 well result was a tremendous outcome, as it delivered a substantial resource for future production and greatly strengthened our confidence in the much larger areal extent of the working petroleum system in the Bedout Sub-basin.

Apus is one of the larger prospects within Carnarvon’s Bedout Sub-basin portfolio, which comprises around 100 known prospects.

Carnarvon is looking forward to the Noble Tom Prosser drilling rig very shortly commencing the Apus-1 well.

The company hopes to share results from the Apus-1 well in coming weeks, with drilling activity anticipated to take approximately a month.”

The Caley Member sands will be the first of two target reservoirs in the Apus-1 well.

The Caley Member sands flow tested at equipment limits of around 11,000 barrels of oil per day in the Dorado-3 well in 2019. They were also oil bearing in excellent reservoir sands in the Pavo-1 well.

The second primary target reservoir in this well is the Milne Member sands, below the Caley. The Milne was hydrocarbon-bearing in the Dorado field.

The Dorado and Pavo results now prove that the petroleum system in the Bedout Sub-basin is effective over a significant area, with the Pavo-1 well lying 46 kilometres east of the Dorado field.

In context, the Apus-1 well location is 27 kilometres southwest of the Pavo-1 well and 31 kilometres southeast of the Dorado field.

The learnings from Pavo-1, together with the outcomes at Dorado, bode well for Apus-1 and a very large suite of near field prospects that are currently being investigated in detail by the joint venture.