For Western Australia, the year 2022 saw two sides. On one hand, there was hesitance when it comes to developments offshore, further marked by a court case, but on the other hand, looking at onshore activities, there is significant activity with a lot of plans in the pipeline as well.
A setback for Santos and partner Carnarvon was the decision to delay FID of the Dorado discovery in the Bedout subbasin. Development of Dorado also comes with further near-field opportunities, so a go-ahead is important for the area.
At the same time, Woodside decided to go ahead with the development of the Scarborough gas field in the Carnarvon Basin, which entails the drilling of 21 wells in total. Already proven in 1979, it took a long time to get this development over the line.
A significant moment for the industry this year was the overturning of the decision to approve the environmental plan for drilling that was filed by Santos. Initiated by Tipakalippa, the appeal from Santos has now been heard and a final judgement is awaited. This has had a knock-on effect on the investment climate, with uncertainty around how to get environmental plans accepted in the future. To an extent, the industry has partly lost its licence to operate, which is a trend seen in many other parts of the world.
The offshore of Western Australia also saw the award of a CCS licence to Woodside Energy in the Browse Basin while the industry has until May next year to apply for acreage in the currently open petroleum licensing round. At the same time, despite the overall positive reception of the news on the CCS licences, the government withdrew grants enabling CCS feasibility studies after initially issuing those. Onshore CCS is also currently looked at by the WA Government in terms of getting the legal framework in place.
Whilst the offshore sector is awaiting further directions from the court, onshore Western Australia has shown to be a busy place this year. In the Perth Basin, Strike Energy is currently evaluating the West Erregulla-3 well, which tested at 90 mmscf/d from the Permian Kingia sandstone reservoir. At the same time, the company is developing the Walyering Cattamarra Coal Measures discovery by drilling the Walyering-5 and -6 wells.
Mineral Resources, the company behind the 2021 Lockyer Deep discovery, is shaping up plans to appraise the extent of the Kingia sandstone gas reservoir in which a 34 m gross pay interval was proven. In the meantime, Buru Energy announced the discovery of potentially 1 Tcf of wet gas in the Ungani Dolomite of the Canning Basin following the completion of the Rafael-1 well this year.
Next year promises to be another big year for drilling in WA. Testament to that is the increased activity in the Canning Basin where Black Mountain is progressing towards seismic acquisition and drilling on their multi-Tcf Valhalla tight gas prospect.
With valuable input from Simon Molyneux from Molyneux Advisors.
Map put together by NVentures.
