Inpex Discovers Gas Offshore Western Australia

Japan’s Inpex Corporation on Monday announced a gas discovery at the Lasseter-1/ST1 exploration well in block WA-274-P offshore Western Australia.

The hydrocarbon pay at the well, where drilling began in March 2014, is assessed to be approximately 80 meters thick in total, the company said.

From a preliminary evaluation of wireline log data, Inpex confirmed the hydrocarbon pay in a 400 meter-long gross gas condensate section. The company also recovered gas and condensate samples from the well, which reached its target depth of 5,329 meters this month.

Moving forward, the Japanese firm, which owns a 20% interest in the Block, intends to work alongside partners Santos (operator) and Chevron to analyse and evaluate data extracted from the Lasseter-1/ST1 exploration well, and study the possibilities of commercial development.

Santos and Chevron own 30% and 50% interests in the block, respectively.

The Block is located approximately 500 kilometers north-northeast of Broome, Western Australia, and 50 kilometers west-northwest of the Ichthys gas-condensate field, where Inpex as operator is developing the Ichthys LNG Project.

In 2012, Inpex and its partners discovered gas-condensate at the Crown-1/ST1 exploration well also located in the Block, 35 kilometers west-northwest of the Lasseter-1/ST1 exploration well.