Empire Oil and Gas Plans Testing Recent Western Australia Gas Discovery

Empire Oil and Gas on Friday said it is moving ahead successfully with completion and testing plans for Empire’s recent gas discovery at its 100 percent owned Red Gully North-1 exploration well (RGN-1) in EP 389 in Western Australia.

The company said all service contracts are in place, government approvals submitted and long lead equipment received.

A contract has been awarded to Enerdrill Pty Ltd which secures the use of Enerdrill’s Completion Rig-1 and will cover well completion activities at RGN-1.

Preparations for the completion and testing program are significantly advanced, Empire said.

Subject to government approvals being received, the completion operations on RGN-1 are expected to begin on 23 March with testing operations expected to start in mid-April.

The testing objectives include determining the deliverability of gas and condensate and recovering hydrocarbon samples from each zone. A successful production test will allow significant contingent resources to be converted to reserves, thereby commercially justifying an ultimate investment decision to construct a pipeline tie-back to the Red Gully processing plant. A tie-back of RGN1 to the Red Gully plant will support an extension of plant life or the expansion of production capacity.