Welcome to Central Petroleum
Breaking News
Overview
- Listed on the ASX March 2nd 2006
- Genesis of the Company 1998 when oil traded at $12/bbl
- Biggest acreage portfolio in Australia 60 million acres 100% operated
- Whole of basin exploration opportunities
- “Yet to find” Amadeus resources unrisked up to 35 TCFG or 6 billion bbls (NTGS 2005)
- CBM prospective recoverable resources Pedirka Basin 34–70 TCFG (P90–P10)
- Horn Valley Siltstone unconventional shale gas and oil potential 12-90 TCFG UGIIP and 10 Bn.bbls respectively
- Trillion tonne coal Exploration Target Pedirka Basin
- Billion bbl and multi TCFG unconventional potential Southern Georgina Basin
- Helium potential of up to 200 BCFG Helium in UGIIP Mt Kitty Prospect alone
- Over 200 prospects and leads
- Long range GTL plans for gas, 10,000–140,000 bbl/day pre-feasibility studies completed
- Recently completed (Jan 2004) infrastructure direct link to Port Darwin, existing 14" pipeline to Darwin
- Experienced management and Board
- Good risk spread in different basins, different play types and different commodity marketing targets ie gas, oil, condensate, diesel, naphtha, jet fuel and Helium
- Dramatically underexplored given an average discovery success rate of over 4 MMboe per exploration well thus far in the Amadeus and with an average well density of c. 1 well per 5,000 square kilometres (1.2 million acres)
- Farmouts formalised and progressing:
- 50% for 25% pre-drilling seismic Mt Kitty and Magee prospect blocks with farmin partner He Nuclear Limited
- 40% for 20% of $3 million seismic and up to 3 wells over every permit with Petroleum Exploration Australia Limited-now owned by QGC, a British Gas Australia Company
- 20% for 10% of $3 million seismic and up to 3 wells on EP 115 and EPA 111with Trident Energy Limited
Rationale
The Company believes that the oil and gas potential of central Australia has been significantly overlooked and the area remains one of the true under-explored and under-developed proven petroleum provinces within Australia. To date over c. 20 MMbbls of oil and 0.5 TCFG of gas have been produced within central Australia from the Mereenie and Palm Valley fields leaving existing known resources significantly under-developed. Estimates by the Northern Territory Geological Survey estimate up to about 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (35 TCFG equivalent) unrisked recoverable hydrocarbons (650 MMbloe "risked") remain to be discovered in the Amadeus alone while the Johnstone oil prospect, considered mature for drilling by the Company may host up to 300 MMbbls of UOIIP.
A recent CBM and GTL pre-feasibility study undertaken by Mulready Consultants and Holt Campbell and Payton consulting engineers details prospective recoverable CBM resources ranging from P90-34 TCFG to P10-70 TCFG which according to the study have potential for fueling a 140,000 bbl/day GTL plant located at Alice Springs to produce ultra clean diesel, jet fuel and naptha over a 70 year plus lifetime The breakeven prevailing oil price of such a plant would be c. US$30/bbl. Smaller intermediate plants fuelled by conventionally reservoired gas are also under consideration.
The extensive coal measures in the Pedirka Basin have recently been added to with the acquisitionof Exploration Permits EPA 104, 105 and 106 currently operated by Traditional Oil Pty Ltd. This package will add some 8,000 km2 of additional coal measures as well as significant exploration potential for conventionally reservoired oil, gas, condensate and Helium.
A viable coal "Exploration Target" of over 1 Trillion tonnes above 1,000m depth in the Company's Pedirka Basin petroleum acreage has been recently published and the Company has also taken up mineral exploration permit applications over most of the same petroleum acreage in the Pedirka to cover the possibility of the Northern Territory government classifying UCG (Underground Coal Gasification) as an activity under the Mining Act.
There are numerous other untested leads not evaluated yet. Both Ooraminna and Waterhouse prospects in the Amadeus have flowed gas to surface but remain un-evaluated; both prospects are over 300 square kilometres in upside closure.
Since 1998, when oil traded at $12/bbl, the Company has undertaken a highly focused strategy to secure acreage within the areas it considers to be the most prospective for oil and gas within central Australia and will seek to increase its presence in this focus area. The Company will also pursue the acquisition of a reserve based asset or assets internal or external to this area if such opportunities can provide early monetisation to aid in funding the exploration and development of the Company's current interests.
Early exploration in the 1960s by such groups as the French Petroleum Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Total, Santos, Beach Petroleum and North Broken Hill produced some encouraging results. Indeed Magellan and others discovered the still producing Mereenie and Palm Valley oil and gas fields which at one time were Australia's biggest onshore oil and gas fields with over 140 MMbbls of oil equivalent in reserves.
Several factors conspired to thwart development of central Australia from the 1960s to the advent of Central Petroleum's current strategy. These factors included the remoteness of the region, the relatively unattractive economics of developing sales gas for transport by pipeline to the east coast domestic markets, the lack of rail transport links direct to export markets and low oil prices rendering GTL economics unattractive. With the advent of prevailing higher oil prices and the commissioning of a rail link to direct to port facilities in Darwin, the area is now ripe for development.
Several new play types being developed by Central include:
- The Horn Valley fractured source unconventional gas play including basin centred gas plays in this extensive formation gas mature over c.10,000 and oil mature over 7,000 square kilometres are considered to be potential analogues of the Baxter and Bakken Shale plays in the USA
- The Company's Southern Georgina Basin permit applications host a regionally extensive shale body, the Arthur Creek Shale, mature variously for oil and gas with an average thickness of 500m which compares well in terms of source rock characteristics with the Baxter and Bakken Shales in the USA
- Flanking "halo" plays over very wide synclinal features with reservoir targets terminating on the flanks of steep anticlinal features; some of these are up to 70 km in length and 25 km wide
- The Pioneer Sandstone-Aralka Formation petroleum system, hitherto unrecognised, this occurs over 100,000 square kilometres according to recent analysis
- Various untested potential oil plays drilled through with air and potentially overlooked
- Very large anticlinal targets with Aralka-Pioneer and Heavitree petroleum system potential; largely ignored because of a previous blind focus on Ordovician petroleum systems
- Very large Ordovician hanging wall fault terminated 3 way dip closures with attendant sub-thrust potential.
- Numerous salt structure plays
- A giant interpreted Devonian rimmed carbonate platform play type in the Pedirka Basin considered to be analogous in general geology to many prolifically producing fields in central Asia
- Numerous long channel sands descending into tempestites in the Southern Georgina Basin which are interpreted to have viable reservoir, source and seal characteristics
It is clear that the basins operated by Central, the Amadeus, the Pedirka, the Lander Trough and parts of the Georgina Basin represent probably some of the least explored prospective basins in the world onshore. The Pedirka Basin is considered to be analogous with the Cooper Basin in Australia while the Amadeus Basin, Lander Trough and the Southern Georgina Basin are considered to be analogous with the producing basins in Oman, the Eastern Siberian Platform and the Sichuan Basin in China by virtue of the inherent geology and structures present.
Central aims to develop with its joint venture partners a significant production base in central Australia based value adding to petroleum and Helium products prior to shipment to domestic or international destinations via the recently established rail link to Port Darwin as an alternative to piping products via Moomba.
