Cooper Grows in Victorian Region
Australian Cooper Energy has expanded its presence in the Gippsland Basin offshore the state of Victoria with a new exploration permit which adjoins other assets held by the company, Cooper said May 4.
The permit, VIC/P72, adjoins the company’s VIC/L21 licence which holds the depleted Patricia-Baleen gas field and its associated subsea production infrastructure. “The exploration permit is located in close proximity to several Esso-operated gas and oil fields including Snapper, Marlin, Sunfish and Sweetlips and the Longtom gas field operated by SGH Energy,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s managing director David Maxwell said the new permit the company has been awarded is an attractive and logical addition to the its gas exploration portfolio on a number of counts.
“From a commercial perspective, the permit is very competitively located, being close to market and the company’s gas production infrastructure at Patricia Baleen which is connected to the Orbost Gas Processing Plant,” he said.
“The offshore Gippsland Basin is a key supply source for south-east Australian gas demand and we expect that discoveries in VIC/P72 will have excellent prospects for rapid commercialisation through the company’s existing infrastructure,” he added.
The company has seen a lot of activity in the Victoria region lately.
Earlier this week it spudded its first well at the fellow Gippsland Sole Gas Project with the Diamond Offshore Ocean Monarch drill rig which had just come from having completed the workover of Cooper’s Casino-5 project in the Otway Basin which is also offshore Victoria.
Also, this week, Cooper and its joint venture partners in the Casino Henry project agreed to acquire BHP’s 90% interest in the 150 terajoules (4mn m3) per day Minerva Gas Plant, which will take Cooper’s interest to 50% along with Mitsui E&P and AWE each holding 25% stakes.
“The new exploration opportunity complements our existing project construction at Sole and the work we are doing to mature Manta as the next Gippsland Basin development,” Maxwell said in response to the news of the new exploration permit.
The permit has been awarded for a six-year term, of which the first three years is a guaranteed work programme consisting of 260 km2 of 3D seismic reprocessing and studies and the drilling of one exploration well.
Cooper has 100% equity in it and will assess involvement of joint venture partners according to value and risk management considerations, it said. It said in January that it is planning to increase its output sixfold over the next couple of years. “Our 2018 financial year is about delivering the milestones that take our production from last year’s 1mn boe to over 6mn boe by 2020 – a six times increase,” it said at the time.