Carnarvon to invest $10m in Phoenix

Perth-based Carnarvon Petroleum says it will invest about $10 million to acquire 3D and 2D seismic data, which will allow the company to expand its search for oil and gas at its Phoenix project off the Pilbara coast.

Carnarvon says the data will have the capacity to cover most of the area where the four permits are held at Phoenix, covering about 22,000 square kilometres.

Carnarvon, along with its joint venture partners Finder Exploration, Apache Corporation and JX Nippon, plans to use the data to identify new and refine currently identified prospects and leads for possible future drilling.

Carnarvon chief executive Adrian Cook said the company’s discovery of oil at Phoenix South last year was encouraging for the potential of the project.

“To refine our understanding of this prospectively we need to further build our regional understanding and these data sets will be integral to that,” he said.

“The decision by the joint venture partners to acquire such a large data set was driven by the current assessment of prospectively and the current timing is based on significant cost efficiencies and consideration of the timeframes necessary to prepare future drill-ready prospects.”

In August last year, the company made a major oil discovery at its Phoenix South well, which tripled its share price on the ASX.

Shares in Carnarvon were 1.48 per cent higher at 13.7 cents per share at 10am.