New Standard Energy to Farm Out Western Australia Assets
New Standard Energy has commenced farm out process for its Western Australian exploration acreage.
The farm out process will include the Southern Canning Project (SCP) after New Standard negotiated agreement with its Southern Canning Joint Venture (SCJV) partners ConocoPhillips and PetroChina to resume 100 per cent ownership of the SCP. The Southern Canning Project spans the largest and most prospective sections of the Goldwyer formation in the Canning Basin. In a review of world shale gas resources, the United States Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration estimated the Goldwyer shale contained 764Tcf of risked gas in place and 229Tcf of risked recoverable gas – the largest estimate placed on any basin in Australia.
“The ownership change enables New Standard to package the SCP into the formal farm-out process alongside its two other 100 per cent owned projects, the Laurel Project in the Canning Basin and the Merlinleigh Project in the onshore Carnarvon Basin,” the company said.
New Standard is now able to add the entire Southern Canning Project to its farm-out package, providing potential farm-in partners with significant exposure to large permit areas totalling 15.6 million acres (63,400 km2) in three prospective basins and sub-basins.
The move to farm out the Western Australian permits is to increase focus on development the Atascosa Project, the Eagle Ford shale development project in Texas the Company secured in early 2014, with drilling set to re-commence soon.
“It is our clear priority to focus our capital on our Eagle Ford development,” Managing Director Phil Thick said. “Our farm-out objective for our WA assets is to find a partner to fund the next stages of exploration in each of our projects such that New Standard has no significant funding commitments in WA. We continue in our discussions with the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) to manage our commitments and maintain our permits in all areas, but given our huge acreage position, we also have the option to relinquish parts of our least prospective permits.”