Triangle set to turn rods in Perth Basin oil hunt

ASX-listed Triangle Energy’s share price started to gather momentum today and was up 11 percent on good volumes after the company revealed the rods are about to start turning at its highly anticipated Becos-1 exploration well in WA’s Perth Basin. 

Drilling firm Silver City’s Rig 24 is on the move and expected to roll onto the well pad next week, with drilling due to kick off shortly thereafter. Triangle says the rig, which is fresh from a stint with other Perth Basin operators, will take about two weeks to fully mobilise and set up on-site.

Triangle holds a 50 per cent operating interest in the EP 437 joint venture, alongside Strike Energy and Echelon Resources, which each hold 25 per cent apiece.

Becos-1 marks the second cab off the rank in Triangle’s Perth Basin campaign, following on from its earlier efforts in the same area last year with the Booth-1 gas well. Wildcatting for 279 billion cubic feet of natural gas, Booth-1 was plugged and abandoned at 2800m after hitting no hydrocarbons. 

This time, however, Triangle is going after a fault-bounded structure at the base of the Triassic rock formation in two target zones - dubbed the Bookara and Arronoo Sandstones – with an eye on up to 21 million barrels of oil (MMbbl) in prospective resources.

The expected pay zones sit between 700 and 800 metres. However, the real intrigue lies in what might be beneath. With drilling planned to continue to 1140 metres into the deeper Early Permian section, the company is hoping it might encounter additional oil reservoirs.

Of particular interest is the Kingia Formation, a highly prospective target that could significantly elevate the well’s commercial prospects if it contains hydrocarbons. 

Becos-1 is a shallow well and the company only expects to need the rig for 12 days of which only seven will be used for drilling.

Triangle Energy Global managing director Conrad Todd said: “We are excited to be ready to drill the Becos-1 well as the second drill in our Perth Basin campaign. Triangle considers Becos a compelling target both in terms of the potential resource and the chance of success and we will notify shareholders when the drilling commences.”

The Bookara and Arranoo sandstones were deposited during the early Triassic period along the margins of the prolific Dandaragan Trough, located in the northern onshore region of the Perth Basin.

Notably, in 1996, Key Petroleum drilled the Wye-1 well 15 kilometres to the north of Becos-1. The well, which was drilled into the same horizons, picked up dry gas and eventually produced at a rate of 7 million cubic feet a day. 

Becos-1 is down-dip to Wye-1 and the new target is considered an oil rather than a gas prospect.

The Bookara and Arronoo zones carry a best estimate prospective resource of 5 MMbbl – with Triangle’s net share - upon success - coming in at a tidy 2.5 MMbbl. 

The company has pegged the probability of hitting oil at 20 per cent, which appears a fair roll of the dice in a region that has delivered plenty of upside for explorers in the past.

Triangle has been a long-standing player in the Perth Basin, where it also operates the Mt Horner production licence. This area hosts highly attractive, structurally similar prospects that share the same reservoir targets as the major Waitsia, Senecio, and Lockyer Deep gas fields just to the south. Those assets were recently snapped up by Gina Reinhart’s Hancock Prospecting for $1.1 billion in a high-profile deal with Mineral Resources.

MinRes recently published maiden resources for the Lockyer gas project and Erregulla oil project which Triangle says is one of the largest onshore gas and oil discoveries in Western Australia at 412Bcf of gas and 2 million barrels of condensate.

Oil and gas exploration is a notoriously risky endeavour, however the upside potential tends to be large. Given the attractive address of the company’s latest well, together with drill rigs being mobilised and barrels on the radar, the April spud could be a defining moment for Triangle as it looks bring home the bacon.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au