Cooper Basin
Our Operations
PEL110
The company signed a farmin agreement with Cooper Energy Ltd for a 20% stake in PEL110, situated on the northwest margin of the Cooper Basin. Monitor will earn 20% equity by paying 40% of the costs of one exploration well. The Cooper Basin is a deep northeast-southwest trending basin that has generated the bulk of Australia's onshore oil and gas production for the last several decades.
The Basin has enjoyed renewed interest by companies exploring its western and north-western margins with significant new discoveries by Victoria Petroleum, Beach Petroleum, Cooper Energy and Stuart Petroleum. The story of the Cooper/Eromanga Basin's western and north-western margins is still just developing. Knowledge of the size and types of oil traps is still evolving, including the possibility of stratigraphic traps of larger size than traditional anticlines and faulted anticlines with the mature Birkhead/Hutton Formations showing strong potential. THe possibility of larger discoveries, renewed focus on the Cooper-Eromanga Basin's high exploration success rates, make the PEL 110 farm-in an attractive licence to add to our growing regional portfolio. PEL110, a 1453km2 exploration licence, lies on the up-dip edge, north of previously discovered Kilearny and Telopea oil and gas fields and west of the James oil field. The main reservoirs are Jurassic and Permian, however the Juradsic Birkhead and Hutton are becoming a modern reservoir/source focus. The PEL110 Joint Venture comprised of Monitor Energy Ltd (20%) and Magellan (60%) has identified 7 leads and prospects that have individual P50 undiscovered recoverable oil estimates ranging from 0.6 to 3.8 million barrels at the BIrkhead/Hutton formation level, in similar stratigraphy as recent discoveries along the margin.
Cooper Basin, South Australia
PEL115
The Company has a 42% equity interest in PEL115 in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. The Company entered the licence through a farm-in agreement with operator Victoria Petroleum NL in September 2009.
The Company has now satisfied its obligations under the farm-in agreement by paying its promoted share of 2 farm-in wells, and the equity interests in the licence are as follows:
Monitor Energy Limited 42%
Victoria Petroleum NL (Operator) 33%
Lion Petroleum Pty Ltd 25%
Both of these wells were successful and the results are summarised below:
Fury-1
Fury-1 spudded on 21 November 2009 reaching total depth of 1965m on 19 December 2009, taking 30 days to complete. The well intersected the primary Murta reservoir between 1290-1366m, encountering a gross interval oil zone between 1309-1325m. Wireline log data evaluation has established a net oil column of 7-9m with possible upside due to thin sand layers beyond tool resolution. It is planned that the oil zone will be tested and completed in the near future. In the secondary, Permian objective and Epsilon Formation oil sand was encountered between 1814 and 1819m, containing live oil in the sidewall core samples. THis sand will also be accessed through casing during testing and will require further geological evaluation to determine its full extend and distribution away from the well as it lies between 7-10 degrees down-dip. The Epsilon discovery at Fury-1 is significant as the Permian intervals along the southern margin of the Cooper Basin, thought to be mature or less prospective for exploration and exploitation, may yet prove to be a bonus for explorers and in particular for the PEL115 joint venture.
Airacobra-1
The second PEL115 commitment well, Airacobra-1, was spudded on 11 December 2009, reaching a total depth of 2163m on 5 January 2010, taking 29 days to drill including 11 days weather-related downtime. THe well intersected the first objective int he Cretaceous Murta Formation between 1392m and 1407m, which proved to be water wet, and the second objective within the Permian sequence, including both the Epsilon and Patchawarra Formation sandstones between 2010m and the top basement at 2122m. In the second objective two oil shows were intersected in sandstones and confirmed by wireline side wall coring. The first sandstone lies within the Epsilon Formation between 2016 and 2018m, and the second in the Patchawarra Formation between 2117.5m and 2119m.