Oz Strike Finds Gas in Perth Basin

Australian Strike Energy August 1 said Strike-Warrego joint venture has made a ‘significant’ gas discovery in the Wagina sandstone as part of the West Erregulla-2 drilling campaign.

Strike said the Wagina sandstone was found to be about 74 metres in thickness and made up of sections of clean sand with interpreted blocky porosity development that was observed on drilling to have hydrocarbons present throughout. This section was observed and interpreted from 4,106 to 4,180 metres, it added.

“This is a significant discovery and comes from a secondary target which carried a low pre-drill probability of success. Importantly, it provides further confidence in Strike’s predictions of good porosity development within Permian reservoirs being possible at depths greater than that of Waitsia and to the South-East,” Strike’s managing director, Stuart Nicholls said.

“With good porosity trends continuing with depth, Strike believes that it is on track to find a good quality reservoir within its primary target in the Kingia-High Cliff. With the primary target remaining to be drilled and potentially even more Wagina to come, this is a very exciting time for the company,” he added.

Strike is currently pulling out of hole with the cleaning assembly and will then commence running in hole with the 8-5/8-inch liner before cementing in place to finish the second intermediate section. Following this, drilling will commence in the 6-3/4-inch final (production) hole section to a nominal total depth of 5,200 metres. The primary Kingia and High Cliff gas targets will be intercepted during the drilling of this section, it said.

The West Erregulla-2 campaign is taking place within EP469 in the North Perth Basin in Western Australia. Strike is the operator and the holder of a 50% joint venture interest, and Warrego Energy is the holder of the other 50%.