A significant offshore gas discovery adjacent to the Gorgon field in the Carnarvon Basin of the North West Shelf has boosted WA’s gas inventory considerably.
According to Mines Minister Norman Moore, the discovery by Chevron Australia Pty Limited will position WA as the country’s leading resource State.
The discovery – the fourth in a row for the major hydrocarbon producer in exploration permit WA-267-P – is
similar in quality to three adjacent discoveries made by Chevron and chalks up a 100 per cent wildcat strike rate for the hydrocarbon hunter.
“This indicates the presence of a massive gas reserve as large or larger than the neighbouring Gorgon field, which attests to enormous potential for WA’s petroleum industry,” he said.
The reserves, estimated at 2000 giga cubic metres (70 trillion cubic feet) of gas in uncommitted field off WA’s North West coast, would be able to meet Australian consumption for the next 200 to 300 years.
The Maenad1 wildcat well follows the Geryon1, Orthrus1 and Urania1 discoveries in the same deep water permit adjacent to Gorgon.
Chevron managing director John Gass said the size of the Maenad discovery was still undetermined, but preliminary estimates suggested that the field would be a significant addition to the world class gas reserves already discovered in the permit.
Maenad1 was drilled depth to a depth of 3690 metres about 175 kilometres north-northwest of Onslow, 35km to the northwest of Gorgon and 50km southwest of Urania1 in 1220 metres of water.
lt encountered two high-quality reservoir zones with 20m of total net gas pay.
Chevron holds 25 per cent of permit WA-267-P and operates on behalf of joint venture participants Texaco Australia Pty Ltd (25 per cent), Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Ltd (25 per cent), Shell Development Australia Pty Ltd (12.5 per cent) and BPAmoco Exploration (Alpha) Ltd (12.5 per cent).
