Santos Proceeds With Southern Amadeus JV

Central Petroleum last week announced that Santos has elected to proceed to Stage 2 of an amended Southern Amadeus Joint Venture with Central under terms that will allow the JV to give priority to spending on areas of highest prospectivity.

 It is expected that Santos will determine its position regarding further Mt Kitty testing and its commitment to the North West Mereenie joint venture by around the end of August, Central said.

Central has now regained 100% ownership of the Ooraminna Gas Discovery in RLs 3 & 4 which will form a hub of future opportunities to be pursued after the successful conclusion of a further gas sales contract.

The company said it sees great strategic merit in regaining control of RLs 3 & 4, particularly where RL3 is a mere 10km from Central’s recently acquired the Dingo Gas Field and 50km Dingo Pipeline currently under construction.

“Central and Santos have concurred that the prospectivity of the Southern Amadeus has been confirmed by the results of Mt Kitty and the 1,587km of 2D seismic acquired during Phase 1 of the farmout. As a result, an additional 300km of seismic has been added to the current 1,000km of 2D seismic earmarked for the more prospective Southern Amadeus following Central and Santos’ election not to proceed as a joint venture in the Pedirka Basin (EPs 93 & 97),” Central said.

The Santos farmout Stage 2 will therefore result in a further 1,300km of 2D seismic being acquired in the Southern Amadeus area (estimated to cost around $12 Million) earning Santos 40% participating interest in the permits listed in the Southern Amadeus Joint Venture.

The Amadeus Basin is located in the southern Northern Territory, covering an area of approximately 170,000 square kilometres.